


It's not like people live like this

by pterawaters



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Background Demogorgon (Stranger Things), Car Accidents, Multi, POV Jonathan Byers, POV Nancy Wheeler, POV Steve Harrington, Period-Typical Homophobia, Polyamory, Spin the Bottle, Studying, The Upside Down, Tutoring, Will Byers Can't Catch a Break
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:07:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 71,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25490620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters
Summary: Concerned that Steve's less-than-stellar grades might have been making them look bad, his parents hired him a tutor, Jonathan Byers, they were sure he wouldn't find as distracting as his last one. Sure, Jonathan had good grades in school, but he really wished he didn't have to take the extra work to help his mother put food on the table. After all, everyone knew Steve Harrington was a jerk. Right? It turned out, not so much. After an impromptu study-session-turned-party and a game of spin the bottle, Steve and Jonathan both found themselves dating Nancy Wheeler. And that wasn't even the strangest thing that happened to any of them that week.
Relationships: Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington, Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler
Comments: 64
Kudos: 111





	1. The Tutor

**Author's Note:**

> I took a few liberties with canon. Steve is in the same grade as Nancy and Jonathan, and El doesn't open the gate until 1985. 
> 
> This fic was inspired by a tumblr post made by twilight-byers (https://twilight-byers.tumblr.com/post/616590628257677312/guys-wheres-nance-i-dont-see-her-nancy).
> 
> Big thanks to everyone in the writer's room on the Stoncy discord, especially Bri and wolfish_willow, for all the help and support!

**September 1985**

Steve sat at the dinner table across from his parents, eating the casserole his mother had made and half-listening to the story she was telling about her day. He caught the words “general store” and “Joyce Byers,” but he wasn’t really following as he picked another pea out of the casserole, pushing it to the side of his plate with the rest of them.

“Don’t you think, Steven?”

“What?” Steve asked, looking up from the little pyramid of peas he’d constructed. 

“That Jonathan Byers will make a good tutor? His mother says he’s getting As in all his subjects.”

“Really?” Steve asked. He knew Jonathan Byers was in most of his classes. And Steve just figured since the guy never talked to anyone, he was probably a loser stoner with more smoke in his head than brains. Not that Steve had ever seen Byers hanging out with the stoners, but that was the impression he got. Maybe he was a secret nerd. Who knew?

“Yes,” Harriet said. “Joyce said that Jonathan could use the work, and we both thought he’d probably be less...distractible than the last tutor I hired for you.”

Steve smiled at the thought of exactly _how_ he’d distracted Krissy Thompson. Wait. 

Suddenly it clicked why his mother wanted to hire a tutor who was a guy. She thought Steve was too distracted by girls to focus on school. School was … whatever. It was hard. His teachers expected him to read so _much_ all the time. And they expected him to understand and remember what he’d read, except it never made sense to him. At least not until Krissy had started explaining things to him. She’d been good. He’d started to improve. 

And then she’d worn that sweater with the low neck and her hair up and … well, there were a few non-academic things that Steve was _very_ good at. 

“Mom, you don’t have to hire a tutor. I’m doing fine!”

“You are not ‘doing fine,’ young man,” said Steve’s father, Fred. “We got a call from Coach Anderson. He says if you don’t bring up your grades, he can’t let you go out for the basketball team next month.”

 _Shit_. Steve sighed, knocking over the pea pyramid with his fork. He supposed some extra help to make sure he could play this year wouldn’t be the worst thing. “Okay, I guess…”

“Wonderful,” Harriet said. “I will call Joyce after dinner and arrange it.”

~*~

Jonathan arrived at Steve Harrington’s house in his mom’s old, broken down beater car. It was half past six on a Tuesday night, and he figured some money was better than no money, especially since, after paying the mortgage, they were out of money for food this week. Getting twenty bucks to spend two hours tutoring one of the stupid, popular jocks in his class at school would put some food on the table, at least until Joyce got paid on Friday.

Jonathan swallowed his pride and got out of the car. He could think of at least four different people who would make better tutors than him. Not that any of those students _needed_ the money like he did, but he still didn’t think he was going to be very good at this. When had he ever _taught_ anyone anything? 

Knowing that he would hear about it endlessly from his mom if he didn’t at least show up like he’d promised to, and not wanting to be the kind of person who didn’t show up when he said he would, Jonathan went to the door and rang the bell.

It took a minute, but eventually the door opened. Steve Harrington was standing there, wearing a polo shirt and sweatpants, the fingers on his right hand bright orange, with what Jonathan hoped was Cheeto dust. “Hey, man,” Steve said, stepping to the side of the doorway to make room. “Come on in. Sorry my mom dragged you into this.”

Jonathan shrugged and stepped through the door. “Don’t know how much help I’m gonna be.”

Steve shrugged too, licking his fingers before wiping them on his shirt.. “Yeah, I dunno either. Senior year is kicking my ass. I just need to do well enough to stay eligible for the team. And, you know, graduate...”

Jonathan wasn’t sure which “team” Steve wanted to stay eligible for, but he didn’t really care, either. Sports hadn’t ever interested Jonathan the way they did most of his other classmates, or Lonnie. Looking around at the place – Jesus, the living room was almost as big as Jonathan’s whole house – Jonathan wondered just how stupid Steve was. He had all this, he never had to work a job after school just to make sure his family could pay the mortgage on time. Steve probably had more spare time than he knew what to do with, and his grades were still crap.

Well, Jonathan was used to challenges. 

“Where should we get set up? The kitchen table?”

Steve shook his head. “Nah, my mom hates it when I study there. She always thinks I’m gonna scratch the wood with my pen. It’s–” Steve rolled his eyes. “Let’s go up to my room.”

"Yeah, sure," Jonathan said, trying his best to sound casual, despite the way his heart was suddenly beating faster than it had any right to. It was just another guy's bedroom. Friends hung out in each others' rooms all the time.

Not that Steve Harrington was Jonathan's friend.

And, there was the matter of Jonathan being … different from the other guys. 

He knew there was no possibility for the things he'd idly imagined happening here, now, with Steve Harrington of all people, but it still made Jonathan nervous. What if Steve could tell? What if he could tell and he decided Jonathan needed to be beat up for the crime of thinking about him in that way?

Pushing those thoughts firmly away, Jonathan decided it would be best to focus on the school work. As he followed Steve up the stairs, he asked, "So, which subjects are you doing the worst in?"

As Steve reached the top of the stairs, he sighed and said, "I dunno. Probably History. Pre-calc."

"That history paper is due on Monday. Might be a good place to start," Jonathan said, following Steve across the landing at the top of the stairs and into a hallway. They went through the door on the left, and then that was it. He was in Steve's bedroom. Forcing himself to pull it together, Jonathan asked, "Did you pick a topic yet?"

Steve sat down on his bed with a sigh, leaning back on his hands and shaking his head. "Nah. I get so lost whenever Mr. Lynch starts talking about different dates and events and shit. And I try to do the reading, but it's so _boring_ , I can't…" Sounding genuinely frustrated, Steve frowned and shrugged. "I suck at studying, I guess."

Jonathan figured it would be too weird to sit on the bed with Steve, too dangerous. He sat in Steve's desk chair instead. Looking over at Steve, he realized he saw someone who had all but given up on himself when it came to doing school work. Jonathan guessed, since he was getting paid, he'd better figure out _why_ Steve had given up, because then maybe he could figure out how to help him.

Looking at Steve, Jonathan figured that he was popular because he liked people. He was good at talking to people. A lot better than Jonathan was at it, anyway. Maybe that was the angle he had to approach this from. "Okay, so history," he said, pulling out his textbook and opening it to the chapter they were covering this week, "is just about people and how they react to the things other people do."

Steve gave him a blank sort of look. 

Jonathan frowned at him for a moment. "Okay, say that you had, I don't know, a Twinkie or something. And some other guy wants it. If he steals it from you, what are you going to do?"

"Kick his ass," Steve replied. "Maybe shove the Twinkie down his throat, see if he still wants it that way."

Jonathan blinked a few times at the violent imagery. "Right. That's most wars for you. One group of people has something, like resources, or land, or access to a trade route or something, and another group of people wants it. They fight. Someone wins. They get the resources."

"What about the stuff Lynch was talking about today? The Crusades or whatever? There were a whole bunch of people involved, and I can't keep them all straight, and I can't remember what they all wanted." Steve frowned down at his feet. "Maybe I'll just flunk out, and you won't have to waste your time on me."

With a roll of his eyes, Jonathan found an eraser on Steve's desk. He threw it at Steve's head, the rubber bouncing off his forehead, just below the hairline. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself. It's not helpful."

Steve made an affronted noise, but he smiled a little bit too. Picking up the eraser from the floor, he tossed it back at Jonathan. "So? Mr. Miyagi? Where do we start?"

Jonathan looked at the chapter and started skimming through it. "Okay, so with the crusades, you've got two major groups: Christians and Muslims. And they both wanted…?”

Raising his eyebrows, Steve asked, “Dibs on God?”

Sighing, Jonathan told him, “The holy land.” He took a breath, trying his best not to get frustrated. “Basically, the Muslims had this city that the Pope, the head Christian, decided should belong to them instead. So he asked the Christian kings to send their armies to the Middle East.”

“That Pope was a douchebag,” Steve said, and his phrasing made Jonathan smile a little, despite himself. 

“Yeah. Yeah, he was. In fact, you could write your whole paper around that idea.”

Steve smiled at him, asking, “Really?” and Jonathan wanted to look away, but he couldn’t. He was transfixed by the sight.

Eventually, he made himself nod and say, “Yeah. Why don’t we make an outline for the paper? Then you’ll know what to write after I leave.”

“Sure,” Steve said, reaching for his backpack and pulling out a notebook and a pen. He wrote at the top of the page, in weirdly neat printing, “Pope was a douchebag.”

“Just be sure not to actually use the word ‘douchebag’ in your final draft,” Jonathan reminded him. 

Steve laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think old Mr. Lynch would like that.” He gave Jonathan another one of those bright smiles, and Jonathan had to bite the inside of his cheek. 

This was not the time, nor the place, and this was definitely not the person for Jonathan to be feeling this way about. He cleared his throat and helped Steve get to work.

~*~

“Hey,” Tommy said, punching Steve on the arm as they left Mr. Lynch’s seventh period History class. “Wanna hang out after school? We won’t be able to as much once basketball season starts in a couple weeks.”

“Oh, I can’t tonight,” Steve said, realizing that he hadn’t told Tommy that his mom had hired Jonathan Byers to tutor him. Shit. What was he going to say? Tommy wouldn’t let the truth slide without giving him some major shit. Steve really wasn’t in the mood for that, so he said, “My mom is making me help her with some stuff. You know, family stuff.”

Tommy rolled his eyes and said, “You’ve got to get better at getting out of that shit. She’s gonna have you under her thumb your whole life.”

Steve scoffed. Just because Tommy never listened to his parents didn’t mean that Steve wanted to be like that too. “Whatever. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Steve ended up following Byers’ car to his house. After opening the front door and grabbing a couple sodas from the fridge, Steve joined Jonathan in his room, _really_ not feeling like doing school work anymore that day. 

He gave one of the sodas to Jonathan and then crashed on his bed with a groan. “I don’t wanna do my math homework.”

“But it’s the easiest thing for you to get out of the way,” Jonathan said, cracking open the soda and taking a few swallows. “You know, your biggest problem with grades is not turning in your homework. If you turned it all in, you’d have passing grades in everything.”

“Easy for you to say,” Steve told him, setting his own soda on the nightstand and laying back on his pillows. “Homework takes you _maybe_ an hour. I can’t seem to…” He gave a frustrated huff and covered his face with his hands.

Steve felt the bed sip down next to him before Jonathan asked, “Hey, you can’t seem to what?” After a silent moment, he added, “I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s wrong.”

Taking his hands away from his face, Steve looked at Jonathan, really _looked_ at him. His face showed simple concern, without frustration, or anger, or pity. Steve thought about telling him how hard it was to understand what he read, because he was so focused on getting the words to stop swimming around. No one else seemed to have that problem. His mother certainly hadn’t believed him when he told her back in third grade. When he told Tommy, the guy called him dumb and laughed. Even Krissy Thompson had given him a look that said she felt sorry for him. 

Steve figured that’s why he’d kissed her. To show her he _was_ good at something. 

That wouldn’t work with Jonathan. The whole reason Steve’s mom had hired Jonathan was because she figured Steve wouldn’t get distracted by him. But here Steve was, laying on his bed, looking at Jonathan and feeling the same sort of distracting urge. What would it be like to press his lips to Jonathan’s? It wouldn’t be that different, would it? In fact, his lips looked nicer than Steve had realized before. Sort of soft-looking, smooth and not chapped at all. He wondered what they tasted like.

Steve sat up, but decided halfway through that kissing Jonathan was the worst idea he’d had in a long time. So when he finished sitting up, he wrapped his arms around his knees and rested his chin on them. He wasn’t facing Jonathan anymore, which made it easier to admit, “I have a hard time reading stuff.”

Jonathan cleared his throat, before asking, “What do you mean?”

Steve shrugged. He didn’t know how to explain it. The best he could come up with was asking, “You can look at a word, like the whole word, and know right away what word it is, can’t you?”

His voice soft, and almost breathy, Jonathan said, “Yeah.”

“I can’t,” Steve admitted, wiping his leaking eye on his shoulder. “I have to look at each letter one at a time, like, like breaking a code every time I have to read something. Guess I’m just…” Steve gave a sad chuckle. “Just dumb or something.”

“You’re not dumb,” Jonathan assured him, and when Steve looked over, Jonathan’s face was closer than he expected it to be. Steve heard his own heartbeat in his ears. Still without pity, Jonathan said, “Everyone has something they’re not good at.”

Smiling at Jonathan’s attempt to make him feel better, Steve asked, “So what is it you’re not good at?”

“Talking to people,” Jonathan said, giving Steve half a smile. 

Steve laughed. “Yeah, that’s true. I’m pretty sure Carol has never heard you say anything out loud.”

Still smiling, Jonathan looked away. "Well, lucky for you, math doesn't have much reading. Let's work on that."

"Sure," Steve said, watching as Jonathan moved back over to the desk chair and pulled his books out of his bag, a little scared by how much he wanted Jonathan to move back onto the bed with him.

~*~

"No, Steve!" Jonathan said with a laugh, reaching for the pencil Steve had snatched from him. "Give that back!"

"Never!" Steve said, grinning as he held the pencil out of Jonathan's reach. "We deserve a break!"

Jonathan rolled his eyes. In the month or so he'd been tutoring Steve, he'd gotten a lot more comfortable being around Steve, doing homework in his bedroom three times a week. Every time Steve found some reason to take a break, some reason to pull Jonathan's attention away from his reason for being there. If it wasn't so annoying, it would almost be amusing. Or cute.

"We've only been working for fifteen minutes," Jonathan said, standing up and trying to snatch the pencil before Steve could move it away. He wasn't quite quick enough. "Steve!" Jonathan couldn't help but laugh again. "Fine," he said, taking a step over toward the desk. "I'll just have to steal one of your pens."

"Hey!" Steve said, jumping to his feet and wrapping his arms around Jonathan, hauling him away from the desk. "That's cheating!"

"No, this is cheating!" Jonathan cried, trying to twist out of Steve's grip, only to be lifted off his feet entirely. "How is this _not_ cheating?"

Instead of responding, Steve turned and threw Jonathan onto the bed. He bounced a few times and turned over, still laughing. "Come on! Steve! You need to keep your grades up, remember?"

"You need to learn how to have a little fun," Steve insisted, grinning as he leaned over Jonathan, planting his hands on the bed next to Jonathan’s shoulders.

A sudden thought wiped the smile off Jonathan's face. He was laying on Steve's bed, looking up at him, and Jonathan realized that he hadn’t gotten over his crush as well as he thought he had. It all came rushing back. The feelings. The awkwardness. The fear. The _longing_.

Jonathan held his breath as he watched Steve's face, all but certain he was about to be found out. As Steve's smile faded, his brows knit together, and Jonathan thought it looked more like confusion than anger or disgust.

Still, he forced himself to look away from Steve and tap the arm that was planted firmly between Jonathan and escape. "Come on. Let me up."

Steve didn't move. Jonathan's mouth felt stupidly dry. 

His voice croaked when he asked, "Steve?" and looked back up at him. He still looked confused. Licking his lips, because they felt far too dry, Jonathan started to ask, "What are--"

Steve cut him off with a sharp intake of breath followed by pressing his lips to Jonathan's. 

Jonathan made a noise of surprise, which had the unfortunate effect of making Steve pull away. He avoided Jonathan's gaze as he sat down on the bed next to him and said, "Sorry. Sorry, I don't know why I did that."

Terribly disappointed in how he'd gotten exactly what he'd wanted, and failed to appreciate it in the moment out of shock, Jonathan did the only thing he could think of and got up on his knees, grabbing Steve by the shoulders, keeping him close. Then Jonathan chased down Steve's lips with his own, kissing him back. It was just a short kiss, just a peace offering, a white flag, a truce, an apology. 

When he pulled back, Jonathan searched Steve's face for some indication of how this situation was going to resolve. Was Steve going to laugh it off? Claim it was a joke? Was he going to hit Jonathan? Throw him out of the house? Spread rumors about him all over school? Was he--

Steve smiled for just a fraction of a second before closing the distance between them and kissing Jonathan again. Moving his hands up from Steve's shoulders onto his face instead, Jonathan kissed him back once. And then again and again. 

After a few soft kisses, Steve pressed his lips against Jonathan's harder. Steve pushed at Jonathan until he was laying back on the bed, following him down. Jonathan found it oddly comfortable, laying back and being kissed. He wrapped his arms around Steve, grabbing him and holding him close, sure that he would pull back and declare this all a joke or a prank or something.

Except he didn't. Steve seemed content to just keep kissing for as long as Jonathan would let him. And then Jonathan figured it out. Pulling back, he asked Steve, "Are you only doing this so I don't make you do your homework?"

Steve gave a soft chuckle and kissed Jonathan again before saying, "No. That's just a bonus."

Jonathan laughed, but he got out from under Steve anyway. "How 'bout we finish our work, and pick this up again afterward?"

Steve scoffed and groaned dramatically. "You're the worst."

"Well, your mom isn't paying me to, uh," Jonathan realized what he was implying and cut himself off. "Well, I'd hate for your grades to start slipping again."

"Shit," Steve said with another laugh. "You _are_ less distractible than Krissy Thompson."

There it was. Steve had only kissed him as a distraction. As a means to an end. Suddenly more hurt than he figured he actually would have been if it had turned out to be a joke, Jonathan stood up. Mumbling, "Maybe I should just go," Jonathan started gathering his things.

"Hey, no," Steve said, scrambling to his feet and putting his hands on Jonathan's arms, stopping him. "Don't go. Whatever I did, I'll fix it. Come on, what did I do?"

Okay, now Jonathan was confused. He stopped packing his bag, setting it down again. Looking at Steve, he said out loud, because it needed to be said, "You like girls."

"Ah," Steve said, sitting back down on the bed. Looking at his hands in his lap, Steve shrugged. "I mean, yeah, I guess I do."

"Then what are you doing, kissing me?" Jonathan asked him, really watching Steve's face. 

Shrugging again, Steve said, "I dunno. I wanted to."

"But _why_ did you want to?" Jonathan couldn't help but ask. "Just to get out of doing homework? To mess with me? Because you could tell I like you?"

With a little gasping breath, Steve looked up at Jonathan. "I want to because I like you, too," Steve told him. "I've been thinking about kissing you for _weeks_!"

"Weeks?" Jonathan asked, taking half a step closer to Steve.

That happy grin back on his face, Steve nodded. He reached out and took both of Jonathan's hands, coaxing him back toward the bed. "Yeah. Weeks." Looking up at Jonathan, Steve asked him, "If I do my homework, will you stay?"

Jonathan nodded. "Yeah, okay."

~*~

"So, how's the tutoring going?" Steve's mom asked him when he was halfway through bringing another bite of meatloaf to his mouth.

"Uh, good," Steve told her, sneaking a glance over toward his dad as well. "I'm doing a lot better. Coach is gonna put me on the team. No problem."

"Will you still need Jonathan's help?" She daintily put a bite of mashed potatoes into her mouth, giving Steve what he recognized as a _look_. 

Shit. What did she know? Had they forgotten to lock the door? Had she heard something she wasn't supposed to? While he and Jonathan were both technically adults, Steve didn't have any sort of back up plan in place when it came to a place to live. If his parents kicked him out…

To answer his mother's question, Steve said, "I don't know. Maybe." He also didn't want Jonathan to lose his source of income altogether. "Just once a week or something would probably help me stay on track."

"Sounds like a reasonable compromise," said Steve's dad, turning the page of the financial magazine he was reading. ""I suppose we'll need to pay for tutors to get you through college as well."

Steve laughed nervously and said, "Yeah, maybe." Honestly, he wasn't even sure that he wanted to go to college at all. There would be so _much_ reading, and it wasn't like he could bring Jonathan with him to college, was it?

After his parents went to bed that night, Steve sneaked out of the house. He went over to Jonathan's place and rapped on his window until he came to the back door. "It's cold tonight," Steve said to Jonathan. "Sneak me in?"

"Sure," Jonathan said, waving Steve over. A minute later they were in Jonathan's bed, laying together under the covers.

Steve admitted, "My parents want me to go to college."

"You don't want to go?" Jonathan asked him.

Steve shrugged. "I mean, I don't know what I can do, besides basketball. And I'm not even all that great at _that_."

"At least your parents can pay for college," Jonathan said.

"Your mom can't," Steve realized. "Not even with scholarships and stuff?"

"We'll see," Jonathan told him, but he didn't sound all that hopeful.

"Hey," Steve said, turning toward Jonathan and putting his chin on Jonathan's shoulder. "If you do end up going to college, are you gonna dump me for some college guy?"

"You never know," Jonathan told him with a smirk, moving a lock of Steve's hair back away from his face. "I might dump you for some college girl."

Surprised, Steve asked, "You like girls too? I thought you were gay."

"When did I ever say that?" Jonathan asked with a chuckle, rubbing his hand across Steve's chest. 

"Then what…?" Steve caught Jonathan's hand on his chest. "You like girls, too? Like I do?"

"Yeah," Jonathan told him. "I do."

Steve tried to picture Jonathan with a girl, but he was having trouble with it. "Like who? What sort of girl?"

"I don't know," Jonathan said, in a way that made Steve think he _did_ know, he just didn't want to say.

"You ever kissed any girls?" Steve asked, rolling closer to Jonathan and putting his hand under Jonathan's shirt. He nuzzled his nose against Jonathan's neck too, before placing a kiss there.

Taking a sharp breath, Jonathan said, "No. I might like girls, but they don't like me."

"I like you," Steve told him, moving his hand down to cup Jonathan's dick through his boxers.

"Oh, I like _that_ ," Jonathan told him, turning and pulling Steve into an enthusiastic kiss.

Steve hummed happily as they broke apart for air, saying, "I love it when you go down on me."

"Nuh-uh," Jonathan said, thrusting against Steve's hand. "Me first. You _always_ fall asleep after."

Steve rolled his eyes, but Jonathan kind of had a point, so Steve didn't argue. Instead, he helped get Jonathan's shirt off, and then his boxers. He took Joanthan's dick in hand and stroked it a few times before ducking in. He licked Jonathan's cock, savoring the way he dug his fingertips into Steve's shoulder, a quiet groan low in his throat.

Breathless as Steve sucked and stroked him, Jonathan asked, "You ever do this to anyone else?"

"Not this exact…" Steve paused, bobbing most of the way down before coming back up, "...thing. But Laurie Miller let me go down on her once."

"Yeah?" Jonathan asked, pushing his fingers into Steve's hair. "What was that like?"

Thinking back over it, Steve had to rub his aching cock against the mattress for a little relief. "Fun," he told Jonathan. "It was fun. And _wet_."

Jonathan laughed, putting his hand over his mouth to help keep quiet. Steve grinned up at him. He thought about telling Jonathan about the trip he'd made to the adult book store over in Roane, about the magazine he'd bought and all the pictures it contained of two guys going at it. There were at least a few things in there he wanted to try with Jonathan, even though all they'd done so far was hand jobs and blow jobs.

After Steve got back to it, Jonathan started breathing fast and heavy, his hand tightening in Steve's hair. And then he came, flooding Steve's mouth. As he swallowed, Steve kicked off his pants and let Jonathan take his shirt.

They swapped positions, with Steve laying back against the pillows and Jonathan propped up over him. Jonathan kissed Steve while stroking him, and Steve felt his toes curl at how good it felt. "Oh, you're so much better at that than Laurie Miller."

"Yeah?" Jonathan asked with a slight laugh, leaning closer to kiss Steve's jaw, and then his neck. "How far did you get with any of those girls?"

"You really want to know?" Steve asked as Jonathan moved further down and sucked him in. "Oh, fuck!"

"Yeah, tell me," Jonathan insisted before sucking Steve's cock again.

"You wanna hear about how I touched Laurie until she came?" Steve asked, petting Jonathan's hair. "Or what about the time I fucked Krissy Thompson?"

"Yeah, that," Jonathan told him, eyes on Steve's face, even as he took Steve's cock back into his hot, wet mouth.

"I remember how soft her skin was," Steve told him. "And her hair smelled fantastic. I got her off while we were making out, and that's as far as I thought it would go. But then…" Steve smiled down at Jonathan, shuddering at how good it felt to have Jonathan's wet hand and mouth around him.

"Then what?" Jonathan asked, backing off, making it last longer.

Steve bit down on the urge to give a frustrated groan. When he had his voice back under his control, Steve continued his story. "Then she gave me a condom and told me she wanted me. I'd never been so nervous and horny in my entire life."

Jonathan gave him a long, slow lick as if to reward him for telling that part of the story.

Clutching at Jonathan's sheets, Steve said, "It was a good thing I made her come before, because once I was inside her? God…" Steve shivered at the memory. "She felt so good. Wet and hot. Tight. I bet I only lasted a couple minutes." Giving a morose little laugh, Steve admitted, "She never asked me to give it another try."

"Someday," Jonathan asked, his hand moving evenly, but just slightly too slow, "would you want to try with me?"

The thought of getting to fuck Jonathan made Steve shudder. He nodded his head in response to Jonathan's question. "Yeah, yeah. Oh, fuck. I want that. I--"

Jonathan sucked the tip of Steve's cock and stroked tightly with his hand, and that was it. Steve came suddenly and so hard that he had to bite his lip to keep from crying out.

"Oh, man," he sighed, pulling Jonathan into his arms. "Holy shit. You're getting good at that." His smile at Jonathan was broken by a wide yawn.

"Right on schedule," Jonathan said, pulling one of the blankets up over them. Then he turned Steve onto his side and fit himself against Steve's back. Steve would have complained about being the little spoon, but he was already too sleepy to speak.


	2. Spin the Bottle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A big assignment has Nancy crashing Jonathan and Steve's Friday night.

Steve stuck his head into the school darkroom, glad to see the only one inside was Jonathan. Closing and locking the door, Steve approached Jonathan from behind, saying softly, “Hey, babe.”

Jonathan scoffed at the term of endearment, but he didn’t shrug away from Steve’s touch. “I’m almost done with this. Just a few more minutes.”

“Good,” Steve replied, sliding his hands into Jonathan’s jeans pockets. He did it intending on rubbing Jonathan’s thighs, or maybe feeling him up a little bit. Instead, he found a folded piece of paper in Jonathan’s pocket. “What’s this?”

Shaking the tub of chemicals with the photo in it, Jonathan replied, “Nancy Wheeler’s phone number.”

With a little laugh, Steve took the paper out of Jonathan’s pocket and unfolded it. “Why do you have Nancy Wheeler’s phone number?”

"We're supposed to work on a project together over the weekend."

"A project?" Steve asked, pouting. "It's not gonna take the whole weekend, is it?"

"I don't know," Jonathan said, taking the picture out of the tub and hanging it up. "On the one hand, Nancy's a really good student. She'll probably be good at working quickly."

Noticing the prompt Jonathan left hanging, Steve asked, "What's on the other hand?"

Turning around to face Steve, Jonathan told him, "The project is for Mrs. Baker's English class."

"Shit," Steve said with a little bit of a groan. "Who the hell am I gonna make out with if you're busy all weekend?"

"Word around school is that Missy Cooper wants you to ask her out." Jonathan grabbed Steve by the belt loops and pulled him closer, burying his face in Steve's neck.

Sliding his hands into Jonathan's back pockets and leaving the slip of paper there, Steve said, "Nah. She's so boring, especially compared to you." He found Jonathan's mouth with his and kissed him, pulling Jonathan close enough to thrust against him.

Jonathan kissed back, groaning softly. When he broke the kiss, he whispered, "Maybe you can stay over tonight."

"Got a game tonight," Steve reminded him. "And my parents are gonna be there. I'm not sure I can--" Jonathan rubbed his hard on right against Steve's and his knees almost buckled. "Oh, Jesus."

"Your call," Jonathan told him. "But my brother's staying with one of his friends and I'm about eighty percent sure my mom's gonna stay at her boyfriend's place. Whole house to ourselves? We could--"

"Okay, okay. I'll see what I can do," Steve promised, pulling Jonathan into another kiss. "God, I'm not gonna make it to tonight. What about a quick--" Steve kissed Jonathan again, "--blow job?"

"The bell's gonna ring any second," Jonathan said, giving him another kiss before stepping back. "Sorry."

Steve gave a groan of frustration, but he knew it was no use. He'd only ever gotten him to skip class once and Jonathan’s mom had chewed him out over it. Adjusting himself in his pants, Steve asked, "What's the latest I can come over tonight?"

Jonathan finished gathering his things and shrugged. "Are you asking me to wait up for you?"

"As if you aren't gonna stay up practically until dawn anyway." Steve rolled his eyes as the bell rang. "I'll call if I'm not gonna make it." Then he gave Jonathan one last kiss before unlocking the darkroom door and slipping out.

~*~

Jonathan was halfway through "Raiders of the Lost Ark" when there was a knock at the door. He paused the movie and opened the door, expecting to see Steve. Instead, it was Nancy Wheeler standing on his porch. 

What Jonathan hadn't mentioned to Steve earlier was that up until he and Steve started messing around, Joanthan had been harboring the _biggest_ crush on Nancy.

And now she was _here_ at Jonathan's _home_ and he was wearing threadbare pajama pants and a paint-stained Led Zeppelin t-shirt. "Uh, Nancy! Hey. What are you--" He tried to remember if he had agreed to have her come over, but he couldn't. He wouldn't have _forgotten_ inviting Nancy Wheeler to his _house_. "What are you doing here?"

She gave him a polite, but intense smile and said, "I'm freaking out about this project. It's fifty percent of our grade for this quarter, and if I'm going to get into Notre Dame, I need my grades to be _perfect_."

She barged into the house, ignoring the way Jonathan said, "Come right in," under his breath after the fact.

"The boys were making too much noise at my house, and Will said you weren't doing anything, so…" Nancy gave Jonathan a hopeful smile. "Do you think we could get started now?"

"Now?" Jonathan asked, wrapping his arms around himself. "I mean I… My friend might be coming over later."

"You have friends?" Nancy asked, which gave Jonathan a sharp pain in his chest. Then she must have realized she'd said something hurtful, because her brows took on a worried tilt. "I'm-- I'm sorry! Of _course_ you have friends! I should…"

Jonathan realized that the opportunity to have Nancy Wheeler _alone_ with him in _his house_ was about to slip through his fingers. "No!" he cried, taking a step to put himself between her and the door. "I mean, I'm not sure he's even going to show up. We might as well get started. Since you're-- since you're here."

Nancy's expression softened, and then she smiled at him and Jonathan felt dizzy. "Okay! Great! Should we set up here, or in your room…"

Thinking about his unmade bed and all the clothes littered around his floor, Jonathan said, "Here is good."

He recognized that having Nancy alone with him in his room was the stuff dreams were made of (wet dreams if he was being honest with himself), but really, he didn't know what the rules were. He and Steve had only been fooling around for a little over a month. Steve hadn't dated anyone else during that time. Jonathan hadn't _ever_ dated anyone else. He didn't know what the rules were, if there were any rules at all, when it came to girls. Or other guys. He and Steve had never discussed it.

"Great," Nancy said, taking a seat on the couch. She pointed to the TV saying, "Oh, cool! Indiana Jones."

"Yeah, it's fun," Jonathan said. He didn't want to admit that he'd chosen it because it was Steve's favorite. He turned off the TV and said, "I'll go get my stuff."

Jonathan slipped out of the room, stopping in the kitchen to pick up the phone and dial Steve's number. No one answered. Sighing, Jonathan hung up the phone and went to his room. He put a sweatshirt on over his stained t-shirt, swapped jeans for his PJ pants, and pulled his things for English class out of his book bag. 

After settling down in the living room and getting Nancy a glass of water, Jonathan asked her, “So, how do you think we should approach this?”

Apparently that was the right thing to say, because Nancy grinned and said, “Well, I’ve been thinking about it all afternoon and…”

As she spoke, Jonathan tried to pay attention to her words, but all he could focus on was the curl of hair behind her ear and the way she held her pencil. It was a legitimate problem, because at some point she would expect him to say something at least halfway intelligent and he just… could _not_ focus.

“Jonathan?”

Blinking, Jonathan pulled his head out of the clouds and said, “Sorry. Sorry. What was the question?”

“Are you okay?” Nancy had a concerned furrow between her brows.

Awkwardly shrugging, Jonathan told her, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just spaced out a little.” He gave a breath of a chuckle. “We were deciding which prompt we were going to use for our project, right?”

“Right,” Nancy said, her frown melting away. “I like the second one the best.”

Jonathan reread the prompts and as much as he wanted to agree with Nancy, he just couldn’t. “There’s much less support for this prompt in the text. It’s going to be harder to prove.”

“Are you sure?” Nancy asked, opening her copy of the book.

“Yeah,” Jonathan told her. “I’ve read it, like four– _five_ – times.” He didn’t tell her that one of those times had been reading it to Steve for his own English project two weeks ago. Mrs. Harris was a few weeks ahead of Ms. Baker in the curriculum.

Nancy set her book down in her lap, looking at him with this soft expression that made his heart hammer in his chest. She opened her mouth to say something, but a familiar knock at the door stopped her. 

Before Jonathan could even stand up to answer the door, it opened, and Steve came in, stopping short when he saw Nancy. He had a paper bag in his arms, and his hair was still damp, presumably from his post-game shower. “Uh, hi.”

“Hey,” Jonathan said, standing up awkwardly, trying to ignore the way Nancy was staring at him like she was trying to figure out how he and Steve could be friends. Jonathan said to Steve, “I tried to call you, but…”

“Yeah, I didn’t go home,” Steve said, putting his hand back on the door. “Maybe I should…”

“No, no, don’t,” Nancy said, standing up as well, and then they were all standing there looking at each other. After a moment, Nancy said, “I totally crashed your hang-out or whatever with my anxiety over this project.” 

“It was too loud at her house,” Jonathan explained, noticing the exact second Steve got an idea. “No,” Jonathan told him. “What is that look?”

Steve grinned at him and closed the door. “Friday nights are _not_ for homework.” He reached into the bag he was carrying and pulled out a six pack of longneck beers, setting them on the coffee table next to Nancy’s books. “You said your mom was out of the house for the night.”

“Oh, come on,” Jonathan told him, wondering if this was really Steve’s big plan for the night. “Nancy doesn’t want to–”

“Actually,” Nancy said, reaching for one of the beers, “it’s been a really stressful week. I could use a break.” She took one out of the pack and asked, “You got a bottle opener?”

“Yeah,” Steve said, taking his keys out of his pocket and using his bottle opener keychain to pop the lid for her. Grinning over at Jonathan, Steve asked, “You want one?”

Figuring he might feel less awkward about this whole situation with a little alcohol in his system, Jonathan shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Cool,” Steve said, popping the lid off another bottle and handing it to Jonathan. He took off his coat and shoes, leaving them next to the door.

“Where do you get this, anyway?” Jonathan asked as he took the beer and sat back down on the opposite side of the couch from Nancy. 

“Okay, don’t laugh,” Steve said, opening his own beer and sitting in the armchair next to Jonathan, “but my mom bought them for me.”

“Your mom?” Nancy asked with a laugh. “Cool-guy Steve Harrington gets beer from his _mom_?”

“Hey, I said _don’t_ laugh!” Steve admonished, though he was grinning. “This is a bribe to keep me from telling my dad that she scratched his Porsche in the garage yesterday.”

Jonathan laughed and took a sip of the beer, but he couldn’t quite shake the reminder that Mr. Harrington owned a car that probably cost almost as much as the house Jonathan lived in. Hell, the car _Steve_ drove cost more than he and his mom both made in the last year. By all accounts, Steve shouldn’t be hanging out with Jonathan at all, much less fooling around with him whenever they caught the rare chance to be alone.

“Ooh, how much trouble would she be in if you told?” Nancy asked Steve, and Jonathan realized that the two of them probably had a lot more in common with each other than either of them had with Jonathan.

“Well,” Steve told her, “he’s a fucking hardass about that car. One time I was washing it and I tripped over the hose and fell on it. You could barely see the dent.” Steve shook his head sadly. “I was grounded for a month.”

Jonathan scoffed. “It’s not like he can ground your mom.”

“Could take all her credit cards, though,” Steve said, taking a sip of his beer.

“How?” Nancy asked with a deep frown. “Aren’t they hers?”

Steve shook his head. “My dad is old-school. All of the cards are in his name. All the money, too. It’s barbaric.”

“Jesus,” Jonathan said, shaking his head. “If I ever got married, and that’s a _big_ if,” he said, trying not to give Steve a significant look, “I’d want us both to have our own money. If my mom would’ve had her own money from the start, she woulda left Lonnie _years_ before she did.”

“You’d want your wife to have the freedom to leave you?” Nancy asked him, an intrigued look on her face.

Taking another sip of beer and feeling a little brave, Jonathan nodded. “Love can’t exist where it’s not freely given.”

Steve snorted. “You sound like a fortune cookie.”

“You don’t believe in love?” Nancy asked Steve, settling into the back of the couch, her beer bottle held in her lap. 

“No, I do,” Steve said, picking at the label on his beer. Jonathan got the impression that Steve was very carefully _not_ looking at him. “I just don’t have any good examples of what it’s supposed to look like. In real life, anyway.”

“There’s always Mr. and Mrs. Babcock,” Jonathan told him, getting a loud laugh out of Steve and a softer one out of Nancy at the mention of the famously contentious old couple. 

“At least they talk about things,” Nancy said. “Very loudly. My parents never talk about anything. It’s the worst.”

“Do you think they love each other?” Jonathan asked her. 

Nancy shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. They never say they do.”

“That’s stupid,” Steve said in agreement. “If I had someone willing to _marry_ me, I’d tell them I loved them every day.”

Jonathan felt a lump in the back of his throat. He took another sip of beer, trying and failing to wash it down. 

“Even if you didn’t mean it?” Nancy asked him. 

Steve thought about this for a second before saying, “Hell, yes. If I married someone, I would have loved them at some point. And if I had to say it out loud every day to remind myself that it had been true before, I would. Because that kind of love isn’t worth giving up just because your feelings are being stupid for a little bit.”

The lump in Jonathan’s throat got bigger. 

“Steve Harrington,” Nancy said with a chuckle in her voice, “are you a secret romantic?”

“I don’t know that it’s a big secret,” Steve said, taking another drink, catching Jonathan’s eye as he did.

“Oh, do you guys know that game, never have I ever?” Nancy asked. 

“Where if you’ve done the thing, you have to drink?” Steve asked her. “Yeah, sure.”

Grinning, Nancy held up her bottle and said, “Never have I ever been in love.”

Jonathan hesitated for a moment. What counted as “in love”? Was it that lump in his throat at the thought of Steve loving him back? Was it the way Jonathan’s heart always beat faster when Nancy was around? Was it the way Jonathan couldn’t ever quite seem to fill his nostrils enough with the way Steve smelled?

He drank, noticing Steve drinking at the same time. 

“Oh, interesting,” Nancy said, her grin sharp. “Who are you in love with, Jonathan?”

“That’s not part of the game,” he told her, not daring to look over at Steve.

Nancy tilted her bottle slightly toward him. “Touché.”

“Never been in love yourself, Nancy?” Steve asked, glancing quickly over at Jonathan with a look that said they might be talking about this later. “Never have I ever made out with someone,” Steve said, taking a long drink.

Jonathan drank too, but Nancy didn’t. 

“Never even made out with someone?” Steve asked again.

Nancy shook her head. “Why? How many girls have you made out with?”

“Like, four,” Steve said. “Why does it matter?”

“It doesn’t,” Nancy assured him. “Jonathan, it’s your turn to ask a question.”

Jonathan tried to think of something he could ask. He decided to go for something that wasn’t as charged as the making out or love questions. “Never have I ever fallen asleep in a movie theater.”

Steve laughed, but he also muttered, “Fuck you,” as he took a drink. 

Jonathan was surprised to see Nancy drinking as well. 

“What?” Nancy asked of Jonathan’s expression. 

He shook his head and shrugged. 

“It’s dark in there, and sometimes movies get boring,” she explained. 

“See?” asked Steve, making a sort of smug gesture in Jonathan’s direction. Jonathan rolled his eyes in response. 

“Okay, it’s my turn again,” Nancy said. “Never have I ever had sex.” So much for moving away from the uncomfortable questions. 

“Wait, does oral count?” Steve asked her, and Jonathan could feel his whole face turning red. 

Laughing, Nancy said, “Yeah, sure. Oral counts.”

Jonathan drank, trying not to look over at Steve as he drank, too. If he did look over, he might give something away. Nancy didn’t drink.

Steve finished his beer with a pleased sigh. Setting the bottle on the table, Steve grinned at Nancy. “Never made out with anyone, never had sex. We’ve got a virgin in our midst, Jonny.”

“What have I told you about calling me that?” Jonathan said, kicking Steve’s foot.

Nancy stood up off the couch, and Jonathan thought she’d had enough of the game. But then she picked up Steve’s empty bottle and said, “Maybe we should fix the whole never-kissed-anyone thing. Who wants to play spin the bottle?”

“Oh, me!” Steve grinned over at Jonathan, who honestly felt like he was about to be sick at the thought of playing, because what if he had to see Steve kiss Nancy? What if _he_ had to kiss Nancy? What if he had to kiss Steve in front of Nancy? Would it be obvious it wasn’t his first time doing so?

Still, with the way they were both looking at him, Jonathan couldn’t help but nod and agree. “Yeah, okay.”

Grinning, Nancy said, “You guys have to sit on the floor too.”

“Who gets to go first?” Steve asked as he slid off his chair and crawled over to her. Jonathan walked over and sat as equidistant from the others as he could. 

“Maybe we should do rock paper scissors,” Nancy suggested, holding out her fist. 

“Nah, I’ll go,” Steve said, putting his hand on the bottle and spinning it. When it stopped, the neck was pointing squarely at Jonathan. 

Nancy opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but before she could, Steve leaned over and pressed a soft, lingering kiss to Jonathan’s lips. When Steve pulled back, Jonathan followed him, just a few inches, but enough that Nancy was sure to notice. 

At least Steve looked as flushed as Jonathan felt. He licked his lips and said, “Your turn,” to Jonathan.

The game suddenly felt really, really dangerous. Still, Jonathan reached for the bottle and spun it. It landed between him and Nancy, which he supposed meant that it had landed on Nancy. Jonathan leaned closer to her, but he didn’t kiss her until she met him halfway. He couldn’t help but take a sharp breath at the feeling of her soft lips against his. She smelled incredible. 

Nancy broke away first, giving Jonathan a bashful look as she sat back down. Oh, Jesus. Jonathan felt like the ground might as well swallow him up now. Nothing could ever beat getting to kiss Nancy Wheeler. Nothing could ever beat getting to be her _first_ kiss.

But then she spun the bottle and it landed on Jonathan again. Nancy didn’t wait to meet Jonathan in the middle. She pushed her way into his space and kissed him, her hands cupping his face. 

When Nancy pulled back, giving him a soft smile, Jonathan was speechless. Steve, on the other hand, murmured, “Oh, wow.”

Jonathan almost asked him what he meant by that, but then Steve spun the bottle. It landed on Nancy. Steve cupped Nancy’s face in his big hands and kissed her, and suddenly Jonathan understood why Steve had muttered like that. The two of them together looked like some sort of dream.

When they pulled away from each other, Jonathan noticed the way they were both flushed. He wondered if they were as turned on as he felt. He spun the bottle for a second time, and it landed on Steve. 

Fuck, he wanted Steve so bad. All but forgetting that Nancy was right there too, Jonathan let Steve pull him close. He straddled Steve’s lap and kissed him, open-mouthed and licking against his tongue, feeling the way Steve’s cock twitched and hardened against him.

“Holy shit,” Nancy said, and suddenly, Jonathan realized what he was doing. 

He climbed back out of Steve’s lap, returning to his place on the carpet. “Sorry.”

Breathing heavily, Steve laughed. “Got a little carried away there…”

“Mm-hm,” Nancy said, the disbelief thick in her voice. Still, she didn’t call them out on what she’d obviously noticed between them. Instead, she leaned forward and spun the bottle once more. It landed on Steve, and like she’d been taking notes, she climbed into his lap and kissed him.

Jonathan had no idea what was going on, but Steve’s hand grabbed the front of his sweatshirt and pulled him closer, even as Steve and Nancy traded kisses. Jonathan got as close as he dared, putting one arm around Steve and the other hand on Nancy’s waist.

“What the hell are we doing, guys?” he asked in a quiet, breathless voice. 

Nancy broke away from Steve’s kisses, leaning her forehead against Steve’s as she breathlessly replied, “I don’t know.”

“This is called making out,” Steve said, with a completely straight face until Nancy scoffed and hit his chest. He laughed, pulling Jonathan close and kissing him again. 

It felt a little weird, kissing Steve in front of Nancy, but it felt good, too. They’d been keeping this just between the two of them, and letting someone else inside the circle felt freeing, almost. Reckless.

“What were you guys gonna do? If I hadn’t crashed?” Nancy asked them, putting her hand on Jonathan’s arm. “Drink beer and make out?”

Steve looked over at Jonathan, meeting his eyes and shrugging. “Yeah, probably,” he told her, before getting a worried look on his face. “We’re not– I mean it’s just…” Steve winced in Jonathan’s direction.

“Just sex?” Nancy asked him, looking over at Jonathan. “I’m not so sure about that.” 

Jonathan asked himself what, exactly, Nancy had seen on his face.

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Steve said, laughing awkwardly and twisting his hand in Jonathan’s sweatshirt, tightening his grip. “I meant…” He gave Nancy a rakish sort of grin – the same grin that had made Jonathan first let Steve distract him from tutoring – before saying, “I meant me and Jonathan? We’re not gay or anything. We both like girls, too. A lot.” He pulled Nancy just an inch or so closer, his arm around her waist.

Laughing, Nancy asked Jonathan, “Is this true? Or is Steve just putting words in your mouth?”

“It’s true,” Jonathan told her, taking a chance and putting his hand on her cheek, brushing his thumb across her soft, soft skin.

Nancy met Jonathan’s eyes for a moment, and then she leaned toward him, pulling him into another kiss. Jonathan sighed into it, kissing her back, using the hand he had on her face to keep her close and deepen the kiss. He felt Steve untwist his hand from the front of Jonathan’s sweatshirt and then slip his fingers under the hem and onto the skin on Jonathan’s back.

As Nancy broke the kiss, Jonathan couldn’t help but let his lips kiss her jaw, and then her neck. She was breathing heavily, but so was he, and she pulled him closer. He put his hand on the small of her back, feeling the warmth of her through the cloth of her shirt. Steve’s elbow knocked into him and when Jonathan looked up from nibbling on Nancy’s neck, he saw her pulling Steve’s shirt over his head. Drawn in by the sight, Jonathan switched over to kissing and then sucking on Steve’s neck. He smelled and tasted so different from Nancy, but still so _good_. Jonathan put his hand in the hair on the back of Steve’s head, tugging gently, just enough to expose his Adam’s apple to Jonathan’s searching lips.

Jonathan had been so focused on kissing Steve that he barely noticed Steve and Nancy were working together to get Jonathan out of his sweatshirt, and then his t-shirt. Except then his chest was bare and Jonathan could feel Nancy looking at him. He knew he didn’t compare all that favorably to Steve, his arms were thinner and some of his ribs showed through his skin. Still, the way Nancy looked at him made Jonathan think maybe she didn’t mind the differences. 

Suddenly, Nancy shifted over, crawling into Jonathan’s lap and kissing him again, pressing her chest to his, her thighs tight around his hips. She made small, wanting noises as she kissed him, until he put his hands on her hips and thrust up against her, making them both groan. He wondered suddenly what it would be like to fuck her, to get inside her. He wondered if she would be wet, and hot, like Steve’s mouth. She’d be tighter than his mouth, at least she would be if she was anything like how Steve had described fingering Laurie Miller.

Oh, just picturing it had him close, and the way Nancy was rubbing her crotch against his dick, making those noises and kissing him. Just in case she didn’t realize what she was doing to him, Jonathan turned away from her mouth and told her as he was panting to catch his breath, “If you … keep doing that, … you’re gonna make me … come.”

Nancy took a sharp breath, leaning back and looking at him, her eyes wide and so damn blue. Steve was right behind her, one of his hands under Nancy’s sweater, cupping her breast, the other low on her stomach. He murmured something to her, and then Nancy got a wicked look in her eyes. 

She shifted back a little, still straddling his thighs, and reached for the button at the waist of his jeans. “Can I?” she asked, and Jonathan was nodding before she finished speaking. 

“Y-yeah. Oh, my god,” he sighed, watching as Nancy undid the button, the backs of her hands brushing against the skin of his stomach. He was glad the chair was right behind his back, because he needed its support as he watched Nancy lower the zipper. He helped her get his jeans down a few inches, but then she put her hand on his underwear, palming his cock through it, and Jonathan all but lost his mind. He put his hands on her thighs and groaned loudly, tipping his head back and closing his eyes, unable to process the fact that _Nancy Wheeler_ was touching him.

“Oh, he likes that,” Jonathan heard Steve say. 

Then Nancy took a sharp breath, her hand tightening around him as she whispered, “Steve!”

Jonathan looked up, seeing Nancy with her head tilted back against Steve’s shoulder, and Steve’s right hand in her pants, moving slowly. 

“Oh, fuck,” Jonathan whispered, which drew Steve’s attention. He gave Jonathan a hint of a smile, but he was breathing heavily too, his mouth slack like it got when he was really turned on. He didn’t know what possessed him to say it, but he heard his voice asking, “Is she wet?”

Steve’s hand moved further into her pants and Nancy cried out again, louder this time. 

“Oh, yeah,” Steve said, placing a kiss just behind Nancy’s ear. Then he asked, “Hey, can Jonathan touch you too?”

Biting her lip, Nancy nodded. She put her hand over Jonathan’s on her thigh and said, “Oh, god! I want you to.” She moved his hand closer to her, putting it over Steve’s.

Steve drew his hand out, telling Jonathan, “Be really gentle, okay?”

Jonathan nodded. He got up on his knees and shifted closer, putting his wrist at a better angle as he slipped his hand into Nancy’s pants, and into her underwear. He went slow, trying to be gentle like Steve had said. He followed the curve of her body, past the patch of hair, until his fingers were between her legs. He curled them up and found the slick slit of her pussy, his middle finger slipping through her folds. It felt so good, that his cock twitched and he just about came.

“Oh!” Nancy murmured, her hand clutching at Jonathan’s waist. He wanted her to put her hand back on him, but he didn’t know how to ask for it.

“Babe,” Steve said, pulling Jonathan into a kiss, his hand hot on the back of Jonathan’s neck. He set his forehead against Jonathan’s and asked, “You find her clit yet?”

“What should I–” Jonathan asked, dipping his middle finger back through the wet folds of Nancy’s pussy. “I mean, where…?”

“Up in front,” Steve told him. “It’s a hard little nub. Careful, though. Like I said, gentle.”

Jonathan nodded and followed Nancy’s slit up, toward her front. His finger brushed against something harder, and Nancy sighed, “Ooh.”

“Yeah, that’s it,” Steve told him. “Do that a few more times.”

It was the same voice Steve used whenever Jonathan gave him a blow job, and it was really hard to focus on making Nancy happy when he suddenly wondered what it would be like to have his cock in Nancy’s pussy at the same time Steve’s cock was in his throat.

So turned on that he ached, Jonathan pressed his cock against Nancy’s thigh, speeding up his finger, just a little bit.

“Oh, oh,” Nancy said, arching back against Steve, clutching Jonathan’s shoulder and shifting her thigh against Jonathan’s cock. “Oh, fuck!”

“Still gentle, but faster,” Steve told him. “Faster, babe.”

Jonathan moved his finger faster. He found it was easier to get the same effect with more of a side-to-side motion than using practically his whole arm to move his finger forward and back. 

“Aghh!” Nancy cried, arching her back again, and then she curled in on herself, clamping her legs together around his hand, grabbing his wrist with her hand and squeezing tightly. He thought she was going to pull his hand away, but instead she held his hand in place, her body twitching against it.

Oh! She came! Jonathan made her come!

“Holy shit,” he said, letting Nancy pull him into a few more kisses. When she let go of his wrist, Jonathan pulled his hand out of her pants. He was just about to wipe his wet fingers on the leg of his jeans, when Steve grabbed Jonathan’s hand and sucked two of Jonathan’s fingers into his mouth, groaning. Jonathan groaned too, still teetering on the edge. Enough of a breeze would probably set him off, but he wanted… “Oh, God! Steve! Your mouth!”

“The chair,” Steve said, nodding to the armchair behind Jonathan. 

He got himself up onto it, sitting on the edge as Steve got out from under Nancy and knelt in front of Jonathan. He helped Steve get his cock out through the fly of his boxers, and then Steve was swallowing him down, bobbing on Jonathan’s dick. His mouth and throat were hot and wet and his tongue clever. 

Jonathan got so close, so fast he was dizzy with it, and then suddenly, Nancy’s lips were on his and Steve’s lips were around his cock and Jonathan was coming, and coming, and coming. 

The pleasure washed over Jonathan, and he held onto Nancy with one hand and Steve with the other, slowly coming back to earth. When he was finally able to open his eyes and look around, Nancy was sitting on the arm of his chair, and Steve was standing up, kissing her. 

Knowing his touch would be welcome, Jonathan undid the button and fly of Steve’s jeans. He shoved them down to his thighs, cursing the fact that Steve wore such tight jeans, even if they did make his ass look amazing. After pulling down Steve’s boxers, Jonathan got his hand around Steve’s cock, stroking him a few times. 

Then Jonathan scooted forward in the chair and licked the head of Steve’s cock, the precome he found there bitter on his tongue. Steve took a sharp breath, putting his hand on Jonathan’s shoulder as he licked again. 

Nancy murmured, “Oh, wow,” just before Jonathan sucked Steve into his mouth. 

Steve was really hard, probably getting close, as far as Jonathan could tell. It felt a little weird, doing this while Nancy was watching him, but Jonathan wanted Steve to come, and he wanted to be the one who made it happen. 

Still, as Nancy leaned on him, one hand on his left shoulder, while Steve held onto his right, Jonathan asked Nancy, “Did you want to try?”

“Oh!” she replied, her eyes wide and her cheeks flushed. God, she was so pretty. Biting her lower lip, she reached out, asking, “Can I just…?” She wrapped her hand around Steve’s cock and stroked, making Steve groan. 

Nancy looked up at Steve’s face as she touched him, watching like she was cataloging his reactions. She probably was. 

Jonathan ducked in again, getting the head of Steve’s cock as wet as he could, before pushing the spit down, wetting the rest of Steve’s shaft. Nancy took her hand back and Jonathan did it again, this time taking a second to suck on the head of Steve’s cock. 

“Oh!” Steve muttered. “Oh, Jonathan, babe. I’m– yeah!”

Steve’s cock got harder and Jonathan stroked him faster, until he was coming suddenly with a guttural cry. Jonathan managed to get some of the come in his mouth, but the rest ended up on his chin, dripping down onto his chest.

“Oh, god,” Steve muttered, collapsing down onto his knees, wiping off Jonathan’s chin before pulling him into a long kiss. Then he set his head on Jonathan’s thigh, resting as he looked over at Nancy. With a happy sigh and then a yawn, Steve asked, “So, first orgasm with other people. How was it?”

Nancy giggled and looked down at her hands, nodding. “Pretty fun.”

“Just pretty fun?” Steve asked, watching as Jonathan wiped the rest of the come off his chest and onto the unoccupied leg of his jeans. “We’ll have to do better next time.”

Laughing again, Nancy pulled her hair over one shoulder and asked, “What makes you so sure there’s going to be a next time?”

“Well,” Steve said with that heart-stopping grin of his. “I know how addictive it is, fooling around with this guy.” He poked Jonathan in the ribs, grinning again when Jonathan caught the offending finger. 

With another laugh, her cheeks flushed, Nancy gave Jonathan a look that made his stomach drop with a nervous swoop. It almost looked like she was agreeing with Steve, that she still wanted Jonathan. 

He still wanted her, too. 

Jonathan wasn’t sure what that meant, especially since he still wanted Steve. He didn’t know what anything meant, really. Everything he’d ever read, every movie he’d ever seen, the guy and the girl ended up together in the end. It was never the guy and the girl and the guy’s maybe-boyfriend ending up together. 

Sitting over on the couch, Nancy said, “So, now what? I probably shouldn’t drive home for a bit.” She picked up her bottle and finished off the remaining beer before setting it back down. 

Getting his pants back in order and pulling his shirt back on, Jonathan joined her over on the couch. Gesturing to the TV, he asked, “Indiana Jones?”

“Oh, yes!” Steve cried, his pants back up and buttoned, but his shirt missing. He sat on Jonathan’s other side, putting his arm around Jonathan’s shoulders and yawning as he handed Jonathan the remote. 

Shrugging, Jonathan leaned against Steve, turning on the TV and rewinding the cassette. He asked Steve, “How many times have you seen this movie? Fifteen? Twenty times?”

“Yeah, at least,” Steve replied, grinning over at Nancy. 

She looked a little lonely or all by herself on the other end of the couch. Jonathan offered her his left hand. Nancy smiled and leaned closer to him, lacing her fingers together with his. The tape stopped rewinding, so Jonathan pressed play. He fast forwarded through the ads and previews, finally getting to the movie.

Jonathan tried to pay attention to the movie, but between the fact that he’d already seen the first half that evening, and the fact that he was holding Nancy Wheeler’s hand, and the way Steve kept pressing little kisses to Jonathan’s neck and ear every few minutes, it was difficult to concentrate. 

Eventually he did get immersed back in the movie, enough so that when he noticed Nancy was leaning her head against his shoulder, Jonathan had no idea how long she'd been there. Toward the end of the movie, when all the Nazis were being killed by the angels of death, Nancy clutched Jonathan's arm, hiding her face against his shoulder. 

He wasn't sure what to do, so he looked over at Steve, because he'd had girlfriends before. Maybe he would know. Unfortunately, Steve wasn't any help, as he was just as transfixed by the movie as Nancy. Jonathan had no idea what he was doing, sitting between the two of them. He was terrified of what might happen, of Steve and Nancy leaving him behind, so he told himself to savor this now, while he still had the chance. 

The sound of a car door slamming shut startled Jonathan out of his head. “Shit, my mom!” He grabbed up the bottles of beer, slipping them back into the six-pack holder and shoving the bag over them before stashing the whole thing under the coffee table. Steve struggled to put his shirt back on, and barely got it past his nipples by the time a key slipped into the lock. 

Jonathan sat back in the middle of the couch, trying to look as innocent as possible, though he was sure his cheeks were almost as red as Nancy’s looked. The door opened and to Jonathan’s surprise, it wasn’t Joyce at the door. It was Will.

And he looked like he’d been crying.

“Will? What–?” Jonathan tried to ask as he stood up, but Will just rushed through the living room and toward the back hallway and his bedroom, slamming the door shut. 

“Oh, that can’t be good,” Nancy said, standing up, putting her hand to her mouth. “If he’s… I should get home.”

“Yeah,” Jonathan said, giving Steve an awkward look. Steve shrugged, which was just _so_ helpful. Then Jonathan remembered. “Our project! Maybe we should meet at the… the library or something.”

“Scared to be alone in a room with me?” Nancy asked with a mischievous smile. 

Jonathan couldn’t help but laugh softly and nod. “Yeah, something like that.”

“I’d offer to chaperone,” Steve said, standing up and wrapping his arms around Jonathan from behind, resting his chin on Jonathan’s shoulder, “but I think we’ve proven that doesn’t exactly work.”

“You probably make things worse, honestly,” Jonathan said, putting his hands over Steve’s, lacing his fingers with Steve’s.

Nancy blushed and nodded. “Yeah, probably.” As she gathered her things together, placing them in her bag, she asked, “Does Will know about…?” She nodded at the two of them.

Jonathan shook his head. “No one knows.”

“ _You_ know,” Steve told Nancy, pulling his arms from around Jonathan. He met Nancy on the other side of the coffee table, grasping one of her hands and giving her that soft smile that Jonathan had started to think of as _his_. “Nancy. I had a really nice time.”

She smiled and nodded before going up onto her toes and giving Steve a quick kiss. Jonathan rounded the coffee table, needing to be over there, wanting to put himself between them. They looked so good together. So _normal_. Jonathan felt–

Nancy surprised Jonathan by giving him a kiss as well, looking away shyly as she pulled away. “Call me tomorrow, okay?” she asked, picking up her bag and giving him another smile.

“O-okay,” Jonathan said, shoving his hands in his pockets and finding the slip of paper with Nancy’s phone number in the right hand one.

She said, “Thanks for the beer, Steve Harrington.”

“You’re very welcome, Nancy Wheeler,” Steve said, his eyes on her until she left and closed the door behind her. “That was…” he said, looking over at Jonathan.

“Yeah,” Jonathan replied. “I don’t think she’d tell anyone. Do you?”

Steve shook his head. “No. I don’t think so either.” He put his hand on the back of Jonathan’s neck, his thumb giving a gentle caress. “I wonder if she’ll let us fuck her.”

“You’ve gotta fuck me first,” Jonathan said, before realizing he’d said that out loud. “I mean…”

Steve gave Jonathan a delighted grin. “Are you jealous?”

Jonathan shrugged, turning around and wrapping his arms around Steve. He pressed his forehead to Steve’s shoulder, unable to look up at Steve as he confessed, “I had you first.”

“You calling dibs?” Steve asked, amusement in his voice. When Jonathan couldn’t respond, Steve backed up and ducked a bit, making Jonathan meet his eyes. “It’s okay if you want dibs. It’s okay if you don’t want to fool around with other people. I mean, I thought you were enjoying yourself, but if it’s too weird–”

“No, I was,” Jonathan told him, shrugging one shoulder. “I was enjoying myself. I like her a lot, Steve. That was… _so_ hot.”

Steve laughed. “Yeah, it was. Jesus, when she came on your hand, I just about creamed my pants.”

His voice a low whisper, Jonathan admitted, “Me too.”

Steve pressed his lips to Jonathan’s, just hard enough to suggest the possibility of more. “You still want me to stay over?”

“I don’t know,” Jonathan said. “Will might need…”

Nodding Steve kissed Jonathan again. “I’ll get out of the way. Call me tomorrow?”

Jonathan nodded, then had a thought. He stopped Steve with a hand on his arm. “What are the rules? If I see Nancy again, to work on our project, what are the rules? Are we…?” Jonathan threw his hands up in frustration. “What are we?” He gestured back and forth between him and Steve to better illustrate who he meant by “we.”

“I don’t know,” Steve said with a sigh, though he kept his hand on Jonathan’s waist. He was silent for a moment, gently swaying his body back and forth as he thought. Then he admitted, “You’re the person I think about all the time. I like spending time with you. I like…” He stepped closer, putting arms on Jonathan’s shoulders. “I like getting physical with you. Your kisses get me through the day.”

His chest feeling like it was about to explode with emotion, Jonathan couldn’t help but kiss Steve until the ache eased. When he pulled back, he said, “I think that makes us boyfriends.”

“Then I guess that’s what we are,” Steve told him, almost too nonchalant.

Still, when Jonathan smiled at him, Steve grinned back before hugging Jonathan tightly and kissing him again. 

“So, rules?” Jonathan asked him, loathe to ruin the giddy, fluttery feeling in his stomach, but needing to know. “Do you want me to tell her I can’t do anything unless you’re with us? Or…?”

Steve made a thoughtful humming noise, and then said, “What about nothing below the waist unless we’re both there?”

Jonathan thought about how he would feel if it was Steve and Nancy alone without him, making out, stopping themselves from going any further without him. That would be okay, he supposed. Nodding, Jonathan said, “Sure.” He kissed Steve again before saying, “And if you change your mind, and you’re not cool with it, you’ll tell me, right?”

Steve grinned and nodded. “Sure, babe.”

“Okay.”

Steve hugged him again, kissing Jonathan’s jaw before saying low in his ear, “And next time I get you alone, I’m gonna fuck you so good.”

“Shit,” Jonathan swore, his knees going weak as the blood rushed away from his head. “Fuck, why are you going home again?”

Chuckling, Steve said, “Because you don’t want your little brother in the house when we do it. Who knows what sort of noises I’m gonna get out of you?”

Jonathan couldn’t help but laugh, partly at the ridiculous line, but also partly because he was incredibly turned on and couldn’t do anything about it at the moment. “Yeah, okay, Steve.”

He grinned. “Alright. I’ll get out of the way.”

“Take the beer with you,” Jonathan told him. “I don’t need my mom finding them.”

“Three left,” he said, reaching under the coffee table and pulling out the bag, the bottles rattling together inside it. “Maybe we should have another party with Miss Wheeler. Next weekend?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Jonathan said, walking Steve to the door. “Drive safe, okay?”

“Yeah, I will,” Steve promised, pulling on his coat and jamming his feet into his shoes. “Night, Jonathan.”

Smiling, Jonathan let Steve give him a kiss. “Night, Steve.”

After he left, Jonathan closed the door and leaned against it, trying to make some sort of sense of the night and everything that had happened. Jonathan had made out with Nancy Wheeler! Actually, he’d gotten to third base with her. And so had Steve.

Jonathan officially had a _boyfriend_. Holy shit!

And there was still the matter of Will, and whatever it had been that had upset him. Jonathan didn’t even know who had driven him home. Mr. Wheeler? One of his other friends’ parents? Who would’ve seen Nancy’s station wagon in the driveway and _not_ come to the door to check on her?

Jonathan sighed, locked the front door, and made his way through the house, over to Will’s bedroom. He knocked at Will’s door, asking quietly, “Hey. Can I come in?”

“Yeah,” came the reply.

Jonathan opened the door and found Will laying on his bed, still fully dressed in his shoes and coat and everything, staring up at the ceiling.

Sitting on the bed, planting his arms behind him and looking up at the ceiling too, Jonathan asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Will sighed. 

Jonathan remembered being fourteen, confused and angry all the time. Of course a lot of that had to do with Lonnie still sometimes coming around back then. Well, that and the crush Jonathan had on Patrick Hathaway at the time.

“Whatever it is, you can tell me,” Jonathan assured him. “Okay? Anything?”

Will sighed again, but then he said, “I’m an idiot.”

Jonathan took a moment to digest this assertion before asking, “Why are you an idiot?”

“Because,” Will said. There was a long silence before he spoke again. “Because I thought someone liked me back, but they didn’t.”

It seemed glaring the way Will used very non-gendered pronouns. 

With a gentle voice, Jonathan asked, “What’s his name?”

“Mike,” Will sighed, before sitting up suddenly. “I mean– I mean…!”

Smiling, Jonathan looked over at Will and said, “It’s okay, Will. It’s okay that you like a boy, even if he doesn’t like you back.”

“No! It’s not!” Will turned away from him, muttering, “What would you know about it?”

“I’d know a lot about it,” Jonathan insisted. He leaned closer and put his hand on Will’s shoulder, turning him gently so he could meet Will’s eyes. “ _A lot_ about it. Okay?”

Will caught his meaning pretty quickly. “You…?”

“Yeah, me,” Jonathan agreed, nodding his head. “I even… Well, don’t tell anyone, but I have a boyfriend.”

“Does mom know?” Will asked, and Jonathan had to shake his head. 

“I haven’t told her yet. It’s… it’s kinda new.”

Will seemed to take in this information and process it, nodding his head slightly. “When did you... I mean… When did you _know_?”

“That I liked boys?” Jonathan asked him, and Will nodded. 

Shrugging, Jonathan said, “When I was twelve, I think? Somewhere around there.”

“Yeah, I’ve known for a while,” Will said, sighing again, picking at one of his shoelaces. 

Thinking maybe Will had warmed up enough, Jonathan asked him, “What happened with Mike?”

Will shrugged. 

“Come on. Tell me,” Jonathan said, prodding at Will’s side and making him laugh.

“Only if you tell me your boyfriend’s name,” Will insisted, the edge of his mouth twitching up with a hint of a smile.

“He was just here when you got home,” Jonathan said, wondering if Will had been paying attention at all. 

“The only people I saw were Mike’s sister and that Steve Harrington guy you’ve been tutoring,” Will said.

Jonathan smiled and Will’s eyes went wide. 

“Oh, my god! You’re dating Steve Harrington?” Will laughed. “No way! He’s popular! He can’t be gay!”

Rolling his eyes, Jonathan said, “He likes both. Like I do.”

“Oh,” Will said, thinking this over for a moment.

While he did that, Jonathan asked, “So what happened with Mike? You thought he liked you back? But he didn’t?”

Will hugged his knees to his chest. “Max brought another girl to D&D. Mike kept smiling at her. He let her be a _cleric_! _I’m_ our party’s cleric!” He shook his head and wiped another tear away. “I know,” he said, sniffling, “that it’s _stupid_ to be this upset, but she almost got me _killed_. I’ve been playing this character for five years and she almost ruined _everything_!”

“It’s not stupid to have feelings,” Jonathan assured him, scooting over so he could sit next to Will and put an arm around him. “I mean, you don’t want to punish your friends for something they can’t control. Like who they’re attracted to.” Jonathan sighed. “But your feelings are what they are. There’s no getting around them. Just getting through it.” Shaking Will a little to make him laugh, Jonathan said, “I’ve got some music that might help.”

Will nodded and sniffled again. He sighed, and was silent long enough that Jonathan almost called it and excused himself, but then Will spoke. “How did you find someone who liked you back?”

Jonathan didn’t know what to tell him, other than, “By accident.”

Will gave him a side-long look and scoffed. “Really?”

“Really,” Jonathan told him. “I _really_ didn’t think I was going to date anyone during high school, but…” Jonathan shrugged. “Chemistry, I guess.”

“Hormones,” Will said with a wet chuckle. “Like in that video they show in health class.” He sniggered again, and Jonathan knew exactly the video he was talking about. 

Laughing, Jonathan nodded. “Yeah. Hormones.” He squeezed Will’s shoulder again. “You want me to call Bob’s house? Get mom to come home for the night?”

Will put his face on his arms and groaned, but he didn’t say no. 

“I could tell her you’re sick?” Jonathan offered. 

Will was silent for a moment before he nodded, his voice muffled when he said, “Okay.”

“Okay.” Jonathan ruffled Will’s hair and left, heading for the fridge and the number Joyce left up there the first time she’d stayed over at Bob’s place, over the summer.


	3. The Library

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nancy and Jonathan finally get a chance to work on their school project.

As Nancy drove home through the dark streets of Hawkins, she kept going over in her mind what had happened at Jonathan’s house. She hadn’t even considered kissing Jonathan to be a possibility, though she had _noticed_ him before. But then, when Steve Harrington, the boy she’d had a crush on for _two years_ , showed up? She’d taken the offered beer to calm her nerves more than anything else. 

And the way Jonathan opened up and relaxed once Steve was there? It intrigued Nancy. She wanted to know more, she wanted to see more, she wanted to prove that quiet theory in the back of her head wrong. Normal people didn’t have thoughts like the one she had while watching Jonathan and Steve converse. Normal people didn’t test their theories using party games. Normal people didn’t see their crush kissing someone else and have a reaction that wasn’t jealousy, or envy per se. 

It felt more akin to yearning, to wanting, to desire.

One kiss turned into several kisses, and then Nancy got to see Jonathan really let loose. He crawled into Steve’s lap and kissed him the way Nancy always figured one _should_ kiss Steve Harrington, an ease and familiarity to his actions. 

Nancy’s theory had been right. They’d done this before. They were fooling around together, and Nancy was the only other person who knew. She thought it should feel strange to see two boys kissing each other, but there was nothing unnatural about the way they moved together. It was fluid, almost, like dancing. 

And dear God, Nancy _wanted_ to dance with them. The desire clouded her judgement, made her reckless, had her grinding against Jonathan as she kissed him, simply because it felt too good to stop once she’d started. She let Steve slip his hand into her pants because it hurt too much _not_ being touched, especially with his voice low in her ear, murmuring words so filthy, she blushed just thinking about them, hours later.

And then Jonathan… just as gentle as Steve told him to be, but a thousand times more devastating than Nancy thought possible. How? How could she ever catch sight of Jonathan’s fingers again and not _know_ what it felt like to come because of them?

Nancy shuddered as she stopped at the intersection with Maple. It was only eleven o’clock. It hadn’t even been four hours since she left her house, and now she was driving back to it feeling _completely_ changed.

And yet… 

Nancy wanted more. She wanted so much more. More than making out, more even than fooling around and getting off. And she wanted it from both Jonathan and Steve. Or either of them. Honestly, they could decide and she’d be happy either way. As long as they didn’t decide to exclude her.

Parking the car in the driveway, Nancy took a few deep breaths, willing away the frustration. Even if nothing else happened now that the moment was over, and the spell, or whatever, was broken, Nancy felt like she’d taken at least one step toward becoming the adult she wanted to be. Her eighteenth birthday had been two weeks ago, and she hadn’t felt different at the time. 

She felt different – more adult – now.

When Nancy got into the house, there was still music coming from the basement, and Karen was asleep sitting up on the living room couch. Nancy slipped up to her room, locking her door. She made sure her curtains were closed as she changed into a nightgown and got into bed. 

Turning off the light, Nancy closed her eyes. Her hand drifted downward and she slipped her panties off, kicking them down in her bed. She traced one finger between her legs, touching herself where the boys had touched her, dragging the wetness up over her clit.

Sighing, she reached down with her other hand, pressing two fingers up into her pussy. As she stroked her clit, she imagined it was Jonathan’s finger moving on her again. The fingers inside her could have been Steve’s. She pumped them in and out slowly, her other hand moving quickly, and then she was coming again, clenching tightly around her fingers. She held her breath so she wouldn’t gasp at how good it felt. 

Nancy really hoped it hadn’t been a one-time thing.

It took a long time to fall asleep, and when Nancy woke in the morning, it was already fairly late. She had to get up and get ready, because the project for Baker’s class wasn’t going to finish itself. 

And there was the small matter of filling Barb in on what had happened. Nancy would have to swear her to secrecy, of course, but there was no way she was keeping this from her best friend!

After showering and dressing (wearing one of her favorite tops, just in case), Nancy grabbed a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast and called Barb’s house using the kitchen phone. “I’m picking you up in ten minutes,” she told Barb. “We’re going to the library.”

“Okay,” Barb said. “What’s with the orders? Did you forget how to ask nicely again?”

Nancy chuckled and rolled her eyes. “Please, Barb? I have something I want to talk about. Not on the phone.”

“Okay, sure,” Barb said. “I’ll be ready.”

Her mom was out, as Holly’s weekly ballet lessons were on Saturday mornings, and Mike was likely still sleeping. Nancy had no idea where her father was (she suspected at the office), so she left a note and drove to Barb’s house. 

As soon as Barb got into the car, she asked, “What is the big deal, Nancy?”

“I need to tell you something,” she said, pulling back out of Barb’s driveway and heading toward the library. “But part of it involves telling a secret that’s not mine to tell. So, you can’t tell anyone.”

“Jesus, Nance, fine! I’m sworn to secrecy!” Barb said, holding up her right hand like she was about to swear on the Bible. “What is it?”

Nancy had to lick her lips and gather her thoughts before she could begin. “You know how Baker made Jonathan Byers my partner for the big project?”

“Yeah…”

Nancy made the turn off Barb’s street, but she was having trouble concentrating on driving while recounting the story. She pulled over and put the car into park before turning to face Barb. “I was freaking out about the project, so I went over to his house. Just showed up, uninvited.”

Barb frowned with a worried look on her face, but nodded and said, “Okayyy.”

“So I was there, and he agreed to work on the project, and everything was fine, but then his friend showed up.”

“Jonathan Byers has friends?” Barb asked, sounding mildly impressed. 

“That’s kind of what I said,” Nancy replied with a self-deprecating laugh. “But you will never in a million years guess who his friend was.”

Barb shrugged. “Jimmy Hoffa?”

“No,” Nancy said, ignoring Barb’s joke. “ _Steve Harrington_.”

Sounding just as incredulous as Nancy would have expected, Barb asked, “Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington and Jonathan ‘Never Speaks’ Byers are _friends_?” 

Nancy nodded. “But there’s more. They’re not just friends.” Even though they were alone in the car, Nancy lowered her voice. “They’re sleeping together.”

“No!” Barb cried, and Nancy had to fight the urge to hiss at her to keep her voice down. “No way! They were just messing with you. Jonathan, maybe, but Steve? He’s _not_ gay. He _always_ has a girlfriend. He dated Laurie Miller for, like, six months.”

“But who’s he dating now?” Nancy asked, raising one eyebrow. She watched Barb’s face as she tried to come up with an answer. “Yeah, you can’t think of it because he’s keeping it a secret.”

“So, how did you find out?” Barb asked her. “What, they just told you they were gay?”

Turning even more in her seat, Nancy said, “No. we played spin-the-bottle. It was impossible not to notice it wasn’t the first time they’d kissed.”

“Spin-the-bottle?” Barb asked with a laugh. “What, are you twelve?”

Pouting, Nancy said, “Steve was making fun of me for never having kissed anyone. I–” Nancy blushed and looked away before she could admit, “Well, I kind of ended up fooling around with both of them. At the same time.”

When Nancy peeked over at Barb, she was looking at Nancy like she suddenly had three heads. “What? But– But, if they’re gay, why would they…?”

“They’re both– what’s it called? Bisexual or something, I guess,” Nancy said, sticking her hands in the pockets of her coat. “I think they both like me, and I think I like both of them back. How– how crazy am I being here? Please tell me, because I have no idea at this point.”

“You’re being very, very crazy,” Barb insisted. “What if it all blows up in your face?”

Nancy shrugged. “I don’t know. But it feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, you know? I don’t want to regret not… not _going_ for it. If this does end up being more than a one-time thing.”

“Jesus, Nancy,” Barb said with a sigh, slumping down in her seat. “Well, I hope you have some really great sex before your heart gets broken.”

Nancy laughed. “Thanks.” She reached over and pulled Barb into a hug. “I hope so, too.”

“So,” Barb said when Nancy let her go, “Are we actually going to the library? Or was that an excuse for the ‘rents?”

“We’re actually going,” Nancy told her. “Jonathan and I didn’t even decide on which prompt we’re working on.” She settled in her seat and looked into her mirrors for any cars coming up behind them before putting the car into gear. 

“Robin and I figured it out over the phone last night,” Barb told Nancy. “We’re using study hall on Monday to put our separate pieces together.”

“That’s gotta be nice,” Nancy said with a sigh, “not having this weird sexual tension with your project partner.”

The way Barb said, “Yeahhhh…,” made Nancy think Barb thought she was a nymphomaniac or something. 

“It’s just a project,” Nancy said out loud, more to herself than to Barb. “I can finish a project. I can get a good grade. I will not jump Jonathan Byers in the library.”

Barb gave a loud, snorting laugh, and then Nancy was cracking up, too.

“Yeah, okay, Nance,” Barb said, rolling her eyes. “Good luck with that.”

~*~

Jonathan was still asleep, even though it was late in the morning, when his mom knocked on the door, calling, "Jonathan! Phone!"

"Okay," he called back, his voice sticking in his throat. He figured it was probably Steve calling, because it was almost always Steve who called him, but when he stumbled out of his room and answered the phone, "Hello?" it wasn’t Steve who replied.

"Jonathan. It's Nancy. I know I asked you to call me, but I'm at the library now and I was wondering if you wanted to meet me here. We have so little time to finish this project, and I--"

"You're still freaking out about it," Jonathan finished for her, smiling at how he could just picture her face, the same as it had been when she’d first come over the night before. 

“Yeah,” she said with a sigh. “My friend Barb is here too, so it wouldn’t be…”

Feeling warm at just the thought of seeing Nancy in person again, he could sympathize with her apprehension at being in a place where they couldn’t… Well, _anything_ , really. 

Then Jonathan realized he usually spent a good chunk of time on Saturday afternoons getting Steve through his homework for the week. He’d found positive rewards tended to work really well for getting Steve to focus long enough to finish his work.

Those sorts of rewards would have to wait for when Jonathan wasn’t in a public place. Like the library.

Realizing that Nancy was waiting on him to say something, Jonathan said, “Yeah. I’ll be there soon. Don’t go anywhere.”

“I’ll be here,” she said, and Jonathan could swear he heard her smile. The knowledge that he might get to _see_ her smile sooner rather than later made his heart feel like it skipped a beat. 

“Bye, Nancy.”

“Goodbye, Jonathan.”

He closed his eyes, savoring the way his name sounded in her voice. 

After hanging up, Jonathan picked the phone right back up again, dialing Steve’s number from memory. It rang twice before Steve’s dad answered, “Harrington Residence.”

Trying not to be too nervous, Jonathan said, “May I speak to Steve, please, sir? It’s Jonathan Byers calling about today’s tutoring session.”

“You’re not cancelling, are you? The semester is halfway over. Steve can’t afford to backslide now. Not with transcripts about to go out to prospective colleges.”

“No, sir,” Jonathan said. “I just need to move today’s session to the library.”

"Oh, well… good," Mr. Harrington replied. "Hold a moment, please."

Jonathan rolled his eyes and tried not to sigh audibly. He hated how absolutely formal Steve's parents were, his dad especially. It always felt like they were trying to appear so much better than everyone else. Better than Jonathan, specifically. Technically, they were his employers as well as his boyfriend's parents, though they didn't know they were the latter. Jonathan wasn't sure they'd _ever_ know. Of the few times he and Steve had talked about the future, it had always been in the abstract. Like they both knew there _wasn't_ a future when it came to this relationship. 

Maybe there wasn't.

Maybe it was just until reality caught up to them. 

Or maybe Steve wouldn't get into college and Jonathan wouldn't be able to pay for college and they'd be stuck in this stupid little town together. 

"Hey," Steve's voice said over the phone, a little breathless. "My dad says homework at the library today?"

"Yeah," Jonathan told him, very aware of the nonzero chance that Mr. Harrington was listening in. "Nancy and I still have that English project. I should be able to work on it with her in between helping you."

"Multitasker," Steve said with a breathy chuckle. "I like it."

Jonathan huffed and tried not to blush. "What time do you think you'll be there?"

"Dunno," Steve said. "When do you want me to be there?"

Jonathan tried to picture himself sitting alone at a table with Nancy and _not_ getting flustered, and it didn't go very well. He told Steve, "Soon would be good."

"Soon it is," Steve replied. "Bye, Jonny. See you soon."

"Don't--" Jonathan started to say, pausing when he heard Steve hang up the phone. "...call me that."

Jonathan escaped the house after getting dressed, checking in on Will ("I'm fine, I'm fine!"), and promising his mother he'd be back in time for dinner. The library was in the middle of town, which wasn't very far from any other part of Hawkins, his house included. It had only been about twenty minutes between when Nancy called him and when he went through the doors of the library and began to look around for her.

Jonathan hoped he didn't seem too desperate to see her again, even if he maybe felt a little desperate. 

Before Jonathan found Nancy, a hand clasped his shoulder and Steve’s voice said, “Hey.”

“Hey,” Jonathan replied, trying not to look too relieved that he didn't have to spend time alone with Nancy. He was used to spending time with Steve, so it wasn’t so intimidating anymore. The same was not true of spending time with Nancy. 

“You look nervous,” Steve said, squeezing Jonathan’s shoulder once more before letting go and leading the way into the stacks, toward the tables near the windows. 

Keeping his voice low, Jonathan replied, “I _am_ nervous.”

“Why?” Steve slowed down, looking back at Jonathan. “She’s just a girl.”

Jonathan actually felt a little offended. He gave Steve’s chest a gentle smack and insisted, “Nancy Wheeler isn’t _just_ a girl. I’ve had a crush on her since sixth grade.”

“Since sixth…” Steve repeated softly. He put his hand up on the stacks beside them, blocking Jonathan’s way. “Wait, should I be the jealous one here? ‘Cause if I should, I totally already had dibs on you.”

Jonathan scoffed, but he also smiled and shook his head. “Yeah, okay, Steve. You’ve got dibs.”

“Good,” he said, giving Jonathan a smirk and a wink before turning and leading the way back through the library.

They found Nancy at a table near the windows, sitting next to her friend, Barb Holland. Both girls looked up as they approached, Nancy with a shy smile and Barb with an unamused frown. Jonathan could understand. Steve could be kind of a dick to people when he put his mind to it. 

Either he didn’t see Barb’s frown, or he was ignoring it, because Steve sat down at the table across from Barb and said in a soft voice, “Hello, ladies.”

Nancy’s smile got brighter, and she was still grinning when she met his eyes. Jonathan’s stomach filled with butterflies, but he also found himself smiling back. His fingers ached to touch her again as he sat down across from her. “Hi.”

“Hi, guys,” Nancy said. “Thanks for coming.”

Steve shrugged. “We were gonna be studying anyway. Might as well do it with some excellent company.”

Barb scoffed and rolled her eyes, but Nancy briefly crinkled up her eyes and nose, like she thought Steve was being cute. Jonathan knew Steve better than to think he was being cute for any reason other than making Nancy and Barb like him more than they currently did. 

Jonathan nudged Steve with his elbow and said, “Hey, get started on the pre-calc assignment while Nancy and I talk about our project?”

"Yes, sir," Steve said, with a silly salute that made Nancy giggle. Barb looked a lot less amused by the situation, and Jonathan felt for her. He wasn't sure he wanted to be the third wheel to Steve and Nancy either. And that's obviously what she saw, right? It wasn't like Nancy had told Barb about the night before.

Had she?

Shelving that suspicion for later, Jonathan turned to face Nancy. "Okay, what about the first prompt? Can we just decide to go for that one?"

Nancy made a face and hummed thoughtfully. "I still like the second one better."

"It's going to be harder to prove," Jonathan reminded her. "Didn't you want your grade on this thing to be perfect?"

"Yes," Nancy said, but she stuck her chin out stubbornly. "But I don't back down from challenges. A perfect grade on a harder assignment means more."

Jonathan remembered that look from the night before, from when she reached for the button of his jeans and asked if she could open them. It sent a shiver down his spine and made his cheeks feel hot. He found himself saying, "Yeah, okay. Let's do the second one."

Steve pinched his leg under the table and when Jonathan looked over, he winked, like he knew what Jonathan was thinking about. Jonathan frowned at Steve and smacked his hand away, turning back to Nancy. He noticed Barb watching him and Steve. Shit, she totally knew something, didn't she? Jonathan narrowed his eyes at Barb, who looked away when she noticed, clearing her throat and appearing to focus on her work.

"Let's both write down all the evidence we can find in the text," Nancy said, already paging through her copy of the book. "Don't forget to write down the page numbers."

"Sure," Jonathan told her, suppressing the urge to boast that he didn't have to write down the page numbers. He kind of just knew them at this point. It was the same way he remembered song lyrics and track listings and the author of every book he'd read since sixth grade. He knew other people couldn't do these things, and that if they knew he could, they'd think he was more strange than they already did.

Not that he cared what other people thought. Unless those people were named Nancy Wheeler. 

Fuck.

Jonathan decided to just keep his head down and get through this. 

After almost ten minutes of working in relative silence, Jonathan heard Steve huff and when he looked over, Steve was erasing several lines on his notebook paper. "What is it?" Jonathan asked him quietly.

"I read the directions wrong," Steve told him, giving another frustrated sigh. "Will you read this and tell me what I'm supposed to do?"

"Sure," Jonathan said, leaning closer so he could see Steve's textbook. He took a moment to make sure he understood it in the context of the rest of the page, and then explained it to Steve again in terms he knew he would understand.

"Oh, cool," Steve said, starting over.

Again, Jonathan caught Barb watching him. And Nancy was watching, too. Ignoring them and the way their scrutiny made him blush, Jonathan went back to his work.

Half an hour later, when Barb was off looking for a book she needed and Steve had excused himself to the bathroom, Jonathan and Nancy compared notes. There were a few lines Nancy found that Jonathan hadn’t, which impressed him. “This is really good,” he said, smiling over at her.

Nancy smiled back, but there was something prideful about her smile, too. Like an, “I told you so.”

Jonathan found he liked being surprised by Nancy Wheeler. He liked it a lot. And then she surprised him again by saying, “It’s really great how good you are at helping Steve. The way you broke down those math problems? I could never think to explain it that way.”

Jonathan scoffed, because Nancy had to be a literal genius. Of course she would have figured out how to teach Steve, if she’d spent even half the time with him that Jonathan had. Before he could say this out loud, he realized how close he was leaning to Nancy, how close her lips were and how _much_ he wanted to kiss them again. When he looked back up at her eyes, Jonathan noticed Nancy was looking at his mouth, too. That meant she still wanted to kiss him too, didn’t it?

He was about to try it, when a book dropped heavily on the other end of the table. Barb was there, sitting back down in her seat. “Oops, sorry,” she said, sounding more sarcastic than apologetic. 

Okay, now Jonathan was sure Nancy had told Barb _something_ , at least. He wasn’t quite sure what, or how it led to Barb’s attitude, but he decided to ignore it for the time being. Barb was Nancy’s friend, and if she wanted Barb to back off, Jonathan knew Nancy would make that happen, without his help.

Clearing his throat, Jonathan asked Nancy, “So, how do we want to divide this up?”

“By theme, I think,” Nancy replied, sparing half a glance for Barb as well. “We can divide the paper into one paragraph per theme, with an introduction and a conclusion to tie everything together.”

“Sure,” Jonathan said, looking at the list of quotes they’d assembled. He numbered them and then got out a new piece of paper, sectioning it off into boxes. “Okay, what’s the first theme? A sense of home?”

“Yeah,” Nancy said, her eyes tracking Steve as he returned to the table as well. 

“Still working, huh?” Steve asked with an almost-flirty smile. “Come on. Let’s take a break.”

“Not yet,” Jonathan insisted, unable to stop himself from smiling back at Steve. “You’ve got some reading to do for Lit class.”

“No,” Steve whined. “Are you guys done with your project yet?”

“Why?” Jonathan asked, hoping Steve could tell by the look he gave him that now was not the time to joke around.

Steve frowned at him and said, “I’m hungry. Let’s go to the diner for lunch.” He smiled and kicked Jonathan under the table. “I’m buying.”

“Oh, I’m starving, too,” Nancy said, giving Jonathan an expectant look. “We can finish working there after we eat.”

Jonathan wanted to say that there wasn’t much more to do before they could work on their portions of the project separately, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t turn down Nancy’s invitation. Or Steve’s pleading look and the promise that he would pay. Shrugging, Jonathan said, “Yeah, okay. Sure.”

He watched Nancy and Barb have a silent conversation, which eventually ended with Nancy saying, “I’m going to drive Barb home, but then I’ll meet you there.”

“Aw, leaving so soon?” Steve asked with a joking smile that Jonathan could tell Barb didn’t appreciate.

Jonathan knew that if this thing with Nancy was going to work out, they had to get Nancy’s best friend to like them. He kicked Steve under the table and said, “What Steve meant to say is that we’re disappointed you won’t be there.”

“Yeah, sure,” Steve said, giving Barb one of his charming smiles. It didn’t seem to work on her at all.

“I’ve got to get home,” Barb said, packing up her bag. She stood up and said, “Come on, Nancy. Let’s go.”

Nancy gave Barb a look, but she packed up her things and said, “I’ll meet you there. Twenty minutes.”

“Can’t wait,” Steve told her, getting Nancy to give him a shy smile in return.

Nancy put her hand on Jonathan’s arm, squeezing lightly in lieu of a goodbye. He could still feel her hand on him, even after she left. He watched Steve watch her go, recognizing that soft look on his face.

“This is crazy,” Jonathan muttered. “We can’t both date the same girl.”

“Why not?” Steve asked, like he really didn’t see the problem.

“Because,” Jonathan said, “people will talk.”

“People always talk." Steve stood up and leaned over Jonathan, murmuring in his ear. "People are already starting to talk about the fact that I don't have a girlfriend for the first time since freshman year."

Jonathan frowned. "Maybe they won't talk about you so much, but they'll talk about Nancy," he pointed out as he stood up. "You know what they'll start calling her."

"What?" Steve asked, walking close as they left the tables together and walked back through the stacks toward the front door of the library. "They'll call her a slut? Easy?"

"We can't do that to her," Jonathan insisted. "Nancy's better than that. She doesn't deserve what people will think."

"Yeah, god forbid a girl actually be horny," Steve said with a scoff as they went through the front doors of the library. "You saw how much she wanted us. We can't just…" He turned and walked down the front stairs of the library backwards, hand on the railing. "It would be a crime to leave a girl as quality as Nancy Wheeler unsatisfied."

Jonathan figured Steve kind of had a point, in a weird and crude Steve-like way. If all three of them were into it, why should they let society ruin that? Hell, society at large said that Jonathan shouldn't be in love with Steve, but he _was_. He shouldn't want Steve, but he _did_. 

Following Steve down the stairs, Jonathan asked, "Are your parents home this afternoon?"

"I dunno," Steve said, giving Jonathan a knowing sort of smile. "I doubt it. Why?"

"You know why," Jonathan told him, raising his eyebrows. "And besides, I think I owe you a little something for finishing your math homework."

"Oh, that's _right_ ," Steve said with a dirty grin as he hit the bottom stair. "We gotta take Nancy to lunch first, though. Can't leave a lady waiting."

Jonathan rolled his eyes. Even though Steve had dated girls before and knew more about how to have sex with a girl, Jonathan was pretty sure Steve didn't actually know all that much about them. It was kind of adorable, in a fucked up sort of way.


	4. The Empty House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys take Nancy out for lunch. And then dessert.

When they got to the diner, Steve made sure they got a booth, kind of in the back. He gave the waitress who sat them a charming smile and a quick, "Thanks," and slid into the booth. Jonathan took a seat on the other side before seeming to think twice about it and sitting over next to Steve instead.

"What's the deal with the seats?" Steve asked him, sliding a little further into the booth to give Jonathan some room.

"I just…" Jonathan said, opening up his menu and looking down at it. "I didn't want to give Nancy an opportunity to choose you over me."

Steve rolled his eyes and groaned, "Oh my god!" He nudged Jonathan in the ribs with his elbows. "Didn't it occur to you that she might choose to sit next to _you_?"

"No," Jonathan replied, a little too easily for Steve's comfort. "There's no way she--"

"You guys got pretty close at the library," Steve said, holding up his hands to assure Jonathan he wasn't making any accusations. "It's just an observation. Looked like you two were about to kiss."

The way Jonathan's cheeks went red made Steve smile and nudge at him again. "You've got game, Jonny."

"Don't--"

"Call you that, I know," Steve finished for him, lazily opening his menu. "I'm just saying, you're not as bad at this whole dating thing as you think you are."

Jonathan shrugged, turning the page on his menu. Steve thought that might have been the end of it, but then Jonathan murmured, "I suppose I got _you_ , didn't I?"

Steve laughed. "Yeah, I guess you did. Romeo."

"Romeo dies at the end," Jonathan replied, which made Steve laugh.

Holding back the urge to pull Jonathan close and kiss him, Steve said, "You just cannot take a compliment, can you?"

Before Jonathan replied, the door of the diner opened and Nancy walked through it. Watching her look around before noticing them, Steve was hit with a wave of desperation. "Fuck, I want her so bad," he muttered to Jonathan.

"Me too," Jonathan replied, and it didn't feel at all like a rivalry. It was more like Steve loved Jonathan, and just like they watched movies together and did homework together and made out together, Steve wanted to fall in love with Nancy Wheeler together, too. He didn't get what was so wrong about that. It wasn't like wanting Nancy made him want Jonathan less. He wanted both of them. He wanted more of what they'd done the night before. He wanted it to be not just a fling or an experiment or something. He wanted it to last.

Tommy had always said his problem with girls was that he was too much of a romantic. They never wanted him as much as he wanted them. Tommy had always told him he had to pretend like he didn’t care. Then Steve had found Jonathan, who seemed to return Steve's intensity like it was easy for him. Like breathing. Like Steve wasn't too much for him. What if this thing with Nancy blew up because Steve came on too strong? What if his desperate longing to be loved by her scared her away?

What if it scared Jonathan away, to see Steve feel that intensely for someone else?

But Steve was used to telling his insecurities to shut the hell up.

Under the table, he hooked his foot around Jonathan's ankle, grounding himself with that one touch point, reminding himself that he had something good going here with Jonathan and he'd be an idiot to ruin it. It was better to take things slow.

"Hey!" he said with a friendly smile as Nancy joined them, sliding into the booth across from them. "Like I said, I'm buying, so order whatever you want."

"Whatever I want?" Nancy asked, raising an eyebrow as she took off her jacket. 

Jonathan pressed his knee tighter against Steve's, and when Steve looked over at him, he seemed nervous. Not about to let his boyfriend's nerves blow this for them, Steve told Nancy, "Jonathan really likes the cheesesteak, but he never gets it for himself. I like the burgers, but my mom likes the chicken sandwich. So, you know, there's options."

"Thanks," Nancy said, and Steve got the impression that he'd said something wrong. 

After a quick look over at Jonathan, Steve figured it out. He said to Nancy, "You've been here just as often as either of us, haven't you?"

Scrunching up her nose in a cute little expression, Nancy said, "Yeah, kind of. But I appreciate the recommendations."

"Hey, I just want to make sure you're taken care of," Steve told her, not exactly _trying_ to make it sound dirty. The blush on Nancy's cheeks told him it had landed that way anyway. Wanting to turn the conversation away from anything they couldn't follow through on here, Steve asked, "So, what kind of movies do you like? Please don't tell me you were only watching Indiana Jones with us to be polite."

Nancy smiled and Jonathan gave a soft chuckle. Shrugging, Nancy said, "I don't know. I like a lot of movies. Footloose, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club. Movies like that."

"Movies about rebellious teenage girls," Jonathan said, giving Nancy a little bit of a teasing smile. 

When Nancy laughed and nodded, Steve couldn't help but grin too. She said, "Yeah, I guess so. Why? What kinds of movies do you guys like?"

"Steve likes everything," Jonathan said, knocking his knee against Steve's again.

Rolling his eyes, Steve said, "Not _everything_. I don't like horror movies as much as you do."

"Aw, do you get scared?" Nancy asked, raising a playful eyebrow at Steve over her menu. 

"No, I--" Steve started to say, distracted by Jonathan's laugh. "I don't get _scared_. I just… Remember when we watched Nightmare on Elm Street? You couldn't stop talking about how they did all the special effects."

"So?" Jonathan asked, looking over at him. "Are you saying I ruined the movie for you?"

"No, no," Steve assured him. "I _liked_ listening to you talk about it, I just… would rather watch something funny. Or, you know, make out."

Nancy chuckled, setting her menu down. "Unless it's an Indiana Jones movie?"

Delighted by how easily Nancy had taken to teasing him, Steve found himself smiling at Nancy. That was one of the things Steve really liked about Jonathan. His wit, and his unwillingness to pull punches the way the other people he'd dated would do. To really tease someone in a way that wasn't mean spirited, you had to _know_ them. You had to remember things about them. 

Steve found it easy to remember all sorts of things about the people he'd dated. He still remembered Laurie's favorite flower. He didn't even have to think about it to remember what date was Krissy's birthday. He didn't date Becky for all that long, but he knew the yellow Skittles were her favorite.

He knew all sorts of stuff about Jonathan at this point. Steve knew what flavor pop he liked the best, and that he liked way too much ketchup with his fries, and that he mostly used blue pens, frowning whenever he found himself using a black one, and that he got really turned on when Steve nibbled on _just_ the right place on his neck. 

Steve wanted to learn everything there was to know about Nancy Wheeler, too. 

It was just… he felt like he was actually _good_ at being in love and dating, compared to everything else he tried to do in his life. Like yeah, sure, he was pretty good at basketball, but he wasn't the best in the school. He was pretty good at being friendly with people, but he wasn't very good at making and keeping close friends. 

Steve had realized, about a week after he'd first kissed Jonathan, that part of the reason Steve didn't have any close friends was the realization that he'd been preventing himself from getting close enough to start falling for them. He thought maybe Tommy was the only friend he didn't see in that way, partly because they'd been friends as little kids, and partly because Tommy had been dating Carol forever, so he was always in the "taken" category in Steve's head.

The prospect of getting to love more than one person at a time made Steve excited, and almost giddy. He had so much love and so few people to give it to. Now if only he could keep himself from getting too intense too quickly and scaring Nancy away, maybe this would work out.

They ordered food and once the waitress left, Nancy asked, "So, Senior Year, huh? What are you guys thinking you'll do next year?"

"Maybe college," Jonathan said, giving Steve a look as he repeated, " _maybe_. If I get a scholarship."

"Where are you applying?" Nancy asked him, thanking the waitress when she dropped off their drinks.

Shrugging, Jonathan stirred his cherry cola with his straw. "I mean, I'll apply to Tech. Might do my gen ed requirements there."

"Tell her about New York," Steve urged Jonathan. 

Taking her lips from around the straw in her milkshake, Nancy asked, "What about New York?"

Jonathan sighed and pushed his finger through a droplet of water on the table. Steve pressed his leg against Jonathan's wishing he could hug him instead. "NYU has a really great photography program. But I'd need more than perfect grades to get the full ride I'd need to go there."

"Photography?" Nancy asked, and it seemed impossible that Nancy hadn't noticed Jonathan walking around with that camera around his neck. Steve had noticed, and that had been way before Jonathan had started tutoring him.

"Yeah," Jonathan said, giving Nancy a smile finally. "It's kind of what I want to do. You know, after college, for my career."

"That's really cool, that you already have an idea of what you want to do," Nancy told him. "I'm still…" She shook her head and took a sip of her milkshake before continuing. "English is my best subject, and I like it a lot, I'm just not sure what sort of career I'd want to make of it."

"Well, I'm considering," Steve said, smiling over at Jonathan, "becoming a professional house husband."

Jonathan laughed and shook his head, looking away from Steve.

"What?" Steve asked him. "Don't you think I'd be good at it?"

"You can't cook," Jonathan pointed out.

"I could learn. I mean, it has to be easier than trig and fucking … _history_ class," Steve said. Looking over the table at Nancy, Steve asked, "You want to be a career woman, right? Wouldn't you want your husband to take care of the house?"

"I mean…" Nancy said with a shrug, stirring her milkshake with the straw. "Maybe. I think I'd like it better if we were equals."

Shit. Steve was screwed when it came to Nancy. No way was he her equal. She was a literal genius, and he was just some kid with rich parents who could barely focus well enough to graduate _high school_.

But then Jonathan knocked his shoulder against Steve's, saying, "Do you know what I think you'd be good at?"

"Professional gigolo?" Steve asked, grinning at Nancy and making her blush.

Chuckling, Jonathan said, "No," and pointed to the stack of coffee creamers Steve had idly built while they were talking. "Architect."

"What?" Steve asked him, pointing at the stack. "That? No, I'm not…" Steve tried to argue. "That's a smart person's job."

Nudging Steve with his shoulder, Jonathan said, "Just think about it. Okay?"

When Jonathan was looking at him like that, believing in him, even though Steve knew he didn't deserve it, Steve couldn't find it in his heart to deny Jonathan _anything_. He nodded and said, "Okay."

It galled him that he couldn't just kiss Jonathan to show his appreciation. He'd have to wait and show Jonathan when they were alone.

~*~

Having a lunch date with both Steve and Jonathan was an interesting affair. Nancy got a better sense for how they interacted with one another, and just how much _affection_ they had for one another, even if they weren't showing it as physically as they had the night before. It was obvious to Nancy that, though they didn't know absolutely everything about one another yet, they were getting there. 

They were in love.

Nancy wondered if butting in on that love was a good idea or not. What if she ruined everything for them?

But what if she got to experience that love for herself too?

It wasn't like this could last forever, after all. It was senior year. In a little more than six months, they'd graduate and then there would be a final summer, and then they'd go their separate ways. What was the risk then, really? Versus the possible reward?

After they were done eating, Jonathan moved over to Nancy’s side of the table so they could work together, while Steve sat in the other booth, his legs stretched out along the seat, feet hanging in the aisle as he read _Brave New World_ , chewing on the end of his pencil as he made his way through it. 

Nancy was struck by the desire to sit on Steve's lap and pull that pencil out of his mouth, replacing it with her own mouth. She vividly remembered the way he'd tasted the night before, and she wondered if it would be very different this soon after a meal, or if the unique taste of him would shine through.

Beside her, Jonathan wrote his paragraphs of the project on lined paper with neat, flowing writing. Sitting next to him, his smell reminded her of being in his house the night before. Only here and now, away from the house, she found she also noticed something in the way he smelled that reminded her of the way he'd tasted when she kissed him. Every breath distracted her and she thought she would get used to it, but she didn't.

Frustrated and pressing her thighs together like that would ease the ache, Nancy gave up on fighting every ounce of her desire. She reached across her lap and put her left hand over Jonathan's. He looked at her and smiled, turning his hand so it was palm up, better to hold hers. Nancy smiled back at him shyly, and then tried to focus on her work. 

After a few minutes it got easier, and she managed to finish most of her work before giving into the urge to stroke the edge of Jonathan's hand with her thumb. After a moment, Jonathan returned the gesture, and Nancy couldn't help but think about the way he'd touched her the night before. She had to fight the urge to put his hand between her legs right there in the restaurant.

Clearing her throat, Nancy murmured to Jonathan, "Please tell me you're almost done with your half."

"Yeah," he said, still writing until he finished a sentence. Then he looked over at her and asked, "Why?"

"Do you want to go somewhere else?" she asked, before realizing that she hadn't exactly communicated what she wanted. "I mean, is there someplace we can go?"

She knew he understood her meaning when he stuttered, "O-oh. You mean to…?"

Feeling more than a little desperate, Nancy nodded. "Yeah. Is there?"

"Steve," Jonathan said, getting his attention. "Your house?"

"What about my house?" Steve asked, taking the pencil out of his mouth and looking up at them with a puzzled expression.

"Can we go there?" Nancy asked him, raising her eyebrows and trying to convey her meaning without having to say it out loud, here in the restaurant where anyone could hear.

Steve blinked a few times before it seemed like he got it. "Yeah! Yeah. We can go there. I'm not sure if my parents are out, but we can give it a shot."

Nodding, Nancy said, "Let's go."

They packed up their things, Steve leaving a nice tip for them having occupied the table so long, and then Nancy was eagerly hurrying to her mom’s old station wagon. She ended up following both Steve and Jonathan all the way to Steve’s house. Every inch closer felt like an inch less of frustration between her and this overwhelming need she felt. 

Just in case Steve’s parents were home, after parking her car on the street, Nancy brought her book bag with her as she approached the house. Jonathan met her halfway there, offering her his hand, which she took with a grateful sigh of relief. 

Nancy wanted this. She wanted _them_ , but that didn’t stop her from being nervous. Then again, Nancy Wheeler wasn’t someone who let her nerves stop her from doing the things she wanted to do. They hadn’t stopped her from performing at the debate championships last spring, and they certainly weren’t going to stop her now. 

Steve unlocked the front door and opened it, calling out to the house at large, “Hey! I’m home!”

Nancy held her breath as they waited for a response. None came. Steve grinned and pulled Nancy into an embrace that ended in a kiss. He tasted just like she remembered, except maybe without the beer behind it. His fingers pressed into Nancy's shoulder and side, not tight enough to hurt, but tight enough that it made Nancy think that he was almost as desperate for her as she felt desperate for him.

"Up the stairs," Jonathan said, close behind her.

Nancy understood that he wanted to move this out of the front entryway, but she couldn't resist the temptation to turn in Steve's hold and pull Jonathan closer. She tilted her head up and he kissed her, a soft groan in his throat. God, she wanted to figure out how to get him to make that sound again. 

When Nancy let go of Jonathan, Steve had a hold of her right hand and was guiding her toward the stairs. Jonathan followed closely behind, his hands on Nancy's waist. Her skin under his hands felt heated and wanting, since her shirt was between his skin and hers. Nancy wasn't quite sure how far she wanted to take things today, but she knew she wanted the hell out of her shirt. 

They ended up in a bedroom that had a double bed with dark blankets, and light wallpaper with a plaid sort of pattern. Nancy didn't feel much like critiquing the decor, preferring to focus on kissing Steve again. She undid the buttons of her sweater, fingers meeting Steve's at the last one. Jonathan's hand was on the back of her neck, his thumb rubbing the space behind her ear gently, his lips kissing her shoulder. 

Steve whipped his sweater off over his head, throwing it on the floor and sitting down on the bed, pulling Nancy close. She let Jonathan take her sweater, then pulled up on the t-shirt she wore underneath, taking it off and shivering as Jonathan’s hands wrapped around her waist again, skin-on-skin this time.

Steve looked up at Nancy, muttering a soft, “Damn,” as he looked at her, obviously pleased by what he saw.

Nancy smiled and cupped her hands around Steve’s face, kissing him. When she drew back a few kisses later, it was to sit on his thigh, turning to pull Jonathan into a kiss too.

“What do you want, Nancy?” Jonathan asked softly, his lips moving against hers as he spoke. 

When Nancy looked up at him, she saw that Jonathan had his fingers pushed deep into Steve’s hair. Steve pushed up on Jonathan’s shirt, kissing the skin below. It reminded Nancy of the way they’d used their mouths on each other the night before, and Nancy wondered how that would feel, on both ends of the equation. 

Still, she couldn’t find the words to express what she wanted. So, Nancy stood up, lifting Jonathan’s shirt until he took it off. She ran her hands over his skin and then looked up at him as she reached for the button of his jeans. “Is this okay?” she asked, watching his face.

Jonathan nodded, breathing hard as he watched her. Once he got the idea and pushed his pants down, Nancy crawled into the bed, undoing the clasp of her own pants. Now shirtless, Steve joined her on the pillows, helping Nancy take off her pants. She still wasn’t sure exactly what she wanted, but making out while wearing just underwear seemed to be a good place to start. 

A few seconds later, Jonathan was at her other side, kissing her shoulder, his hand hesitant on her stomach. Nancy turned to kiss him, moving his hand up to her breast. Jonathan groaned against her lips and squeezed her, his hands not quite as gentle as they'd been before. Nancy _loved_ it. She moaned and pulled him closer, needing…

"Oh, I want you both to touch me," Nancy confessed. 

Jonathan made a soft noise, his next set of kisses a bit rougher than they’d been before. Steve pressed close behind her, the skin of his chest hot against her back. His hand slid from her hip to between her legs, still over her underwear, but giving her a fraction of the pressure and friction she needed. He kissed her neck and behind her ear as he moved his fingers in a slow, tortuous circle. 

Jonathan’s thumb traced along the edge of Nancy’s bra, making her wish she wasn’t wearing it at all. Feeling needy and reckless, Nancy reached one arm behind her, undoing the clasp one-handed. She pulled it off, tossing it somewhere and turning onto her back so she could kiss Steve, too. Jonathan whispered, “Oh, wow,” and Nancy was curious enough to break away from kissing Steve to look at him. 

Jonathan was looking at her, and when he noticed her looking back, he gave her a soft smile and tucked a bit of her hair behind her ear. That was the moment Steve chose to lick a broad stripe across her right breast, ending by flicking the tip of his tongue against her nipple. 

“Oh, my god!” Nancy shrieked, surprised by the intensity of sensation it evoked. “Steve!”

Grinning, Steve kissed her again, and Nancy found she really loved the way his lips felt when he was smiling. 

Jonathan kissed her shoulder, his hand on her hip, fingers digging in just a bit. Feeling bold, Nancy took Jonathan's hand from her hip and guided it between her legs. She wanted him to make her come again so much, she felt almost dizzy with it. Out of control. 

His breath hot on her neck, Jonathan slipped his hand into her panties, touching her just as gently as he had the night before. Nancy's breath stuck in her throat and she had to gasp to reclaim it. She turned toward Jonathan using one hand behind his neck to pull him close enough to kiss again. With the other, she skimmed her fingertips down his chest and belly, finding his cock and wrapping her fingers around it, just the material of his boxers between them. Jonathan gave a full-body shudder, a low moan erupting from the back of his throat. It was one of the sexiest sounds Nancy had ever heard.

Steve pressed close behind Nancy again, his hard-on tight against her lower back, his hand pulling on the waistband of Jonathan's underwear. Taking his hand off her, Jonathan helped Steve, and then he was naked. Nancy wrapped her hand around him again and stroked, loving how soft the skin felt, but how hard he was underneath. Jonathan moaned again, cupping Nancy's face and kissing her again.

Before she could ask him to, Steve slipped his hand inside Nancy's underwear again, running a finger through her sopping wet folds and finding her clit. Nancy moaned against Jonathan's lips, her breaths coming in time with Steve's strokes. She found herself mimicking that tempo in the way she stroked Jonathan's cock.

Jonathan's hand found its way down from her face to her right breast, cupping it and then brushing his thumb gently against her nipple. "Ohhhh," she groaned against his lips, feeling so close to the edge of something fantastic. A quick learner, Jonathan did it again. 

Nancy found her hips tilting back against Steve, craving pressure, craving…

Oh, God. She wanted Steve to fuck her. She wanted Jonathan, too. She didn't think she was quite ready for that. Not yet. Not this soon. But, man, she wanted it _badly_. 

"Oh, fuck," Jonathan murmured against her lips, his hand on her ribcage, holding her close. "Nancy, I…" He took a sharp breath and then his cock pulsed in her hand, spurting come onto his belly and chest. She was so close to him that some of it got on her belly as well, and while it was a little gross, it was also really, _really_ compelling. 

Jonathan gave her one more long kiss before pulling away and rolling onto his back. He reached for the box of tissues beside Steve's bed, but before he could hand her one, Steve was out from behind Nancy and then over her. He ducked down to her stomach, licking Jonathan's come from her skin in several long, slow strokes. Nancy's mind short circuited and all she could do was watch him. She wondered what it would feel like to have his tongue on her clit instead of his fingers. The thought made Nancy give a small, wanting noise.

Steve looked up at her, and then crawled up the bed, kissing Nancy and laying some of his weight on top of her. She held him close, shuddering with the riptide of _want_ that coursed through her, kissing him back. Just as she was about to wrap a leg around him and really pull him to where she needed him, Steve broke away, leaning over and kissing Jonathan. 

Nancy watched them kiss, suddenly remembering what it looked like when Jonathan had sucked Steve’s cock. She remembered the angle of Jonathan's jaw and the way his lips got redder, and the faces Steve had made. Nancy shivered again, putting a hand on the back of Steve’s neck. She pushed her fingers up into Steve’s hair, scratching his scalp lightly with her nails. 

Something about it made Steve groan and thrust his hips forward, grinding his cock into her clit. Nancy cried out and pushed back against him, tightening her hand in his hair. Realizing what she was doing, Nancy let go and said, “Sorry!”

“No, I like that,” Steve murmured, kissing her again. 

As she kissed him back, Nancy put her hands back in Steve’s hair, gripping it and tugging gently. She loved the way it made him groan and grind against her harder, like he wanted her so bad he was trying to fuck her through the underwear they were both still wearing. Nancy felt just about crazy enough with lust to let him. 

Then Jonathan murmured from beside them, “Steve?”

There must have been something about the tone in Jonathan’s voice that caught Steve’s attention, because he broke away from kissing Nancy, breathing hard as he looked over. Then he was saying, “Sorry,” and shifting off of Nancy, leaving room for Jonathan to kiss her again. 

Nancy knew that she didn’t want to disrupt whatever relationship Jonathan and Steve had, but she missed Steve’s weight on her more than she thought she would. That and the heat of his skin. Without it she felt cold, vulnerable. So Nancy turned onto her side, she put her back against Steve and pulled Jonathan close against her front, kissing him.

Someone’s hand was on her breast and another was in her underwear again, touching her, making her moan against Jonathan’s lips. The hand at her breast left, only to slip down the back of her underwear a second later, fingers slipping between her legs. Nancy lifted her leg, making more room, and then two fingers slid _almost_ to where she needed them. 

“Is this okay?” Steve’s voice asked, low and breathy in her ear. 

Nancy pulled away from Jonathan’s lips just far enough to answer him, “Yes! Oh my god, please!”

The pressure as he slipped his fingers into her pussy felt amazing and Nancy cried out, breathing heavily, her forehead pressed against Jonathan’s. She saw now that it was Jonathan’s hand on her clit, stroking her so terribly gently while Steve fucked her with his fingers. 

Unable to stand how good they were making her feel, Nancy distracted herself by kissing Jonathan, licking his lips and his tongue, tasting him, breathing in the scent of his skin. As if in response to her kiss, he sped up his fingers and that was it. 

Nancy cried out as she came, shaking and holding onto Jonathan like he was a life line. Her body shuddered, clenching around Steve’s fingers, pulsing as wave after wave of pleasure crashed over her. 

Then Steve pulled his fingers away from her and Jonathan’s hand left as well, reaching across her to Steve. When Nancy turned around in Jonathan’s arms, putting her back to his chest, she saw he was stroking Steve’s now-bare cock. Leaning forward enough to kiss Steve’s neck, Nancy put her hand over Jonathan’s, feeling the rhythm he used.

“Oh…” Steve murmured, putting his hand on Nancy’s cheek, then using it to gently tilt her chin up. Nancy gave him the kiss he was obviously looking for, opening her mouth to him when he brushed his tongue against her lips. Then Steve gave a low groan and Jonathan’s hand slowed to a stop, Nancy’s with it. She looked down, watching Steve come.

It was a strange sight, to be honest, with the way his cock spewed forth come, but she liked the way Steve’s heels dug into the mattress and the way his hand clenched in the bedding around him. When Jonathan finally let go of Steve’s cock, he sat up and leaned over Nancy, giving Steve several long, slow kisses.

Suddenly Nancy felt very much in the way. After Jonathan was done kissing Steve, he reached for the tissue box beside the bed, grabbing a few of them and cleaning Steve up. Steve, on the other hand, closed his eyes and murmured a sleepy-sounding thanks. Wait, was he seriously falling asleep?

Nancy sat up, suddenly feeling more naked than she had a second ago. She crossed her arms over her chest, covering her breasts and wondering what the hell she had just done. Again. This was so stupid. Someone, probably her, was going to get hurt if things kept up this way.

Except then Jonathan handed Nancy her bra and asked in a gentle voice, “Are you okay?”

The tender look in his eyes and the way he smiled and brushed her hair away from her face made Nancy realize that, despite the moment of regret, she really was okay. Great, even. She nodded as she put her bra on and then pulled Jonathan into a hug she felt like she needed. He held her close, putting his chin on her shoulder and breathing a slight sigh. 

A soft snore from Steve beside them broke the moment and made Nancy giggle. Jonathan laughed too, pulling back and looking over at Steve with fond amusement. 

Keeping her voice to a whisper, Nancy asked, “Does he always fall asleep like that?”

Jonathan shrugged and replied, “Nine times out of ten. I don’t think he can help it.”

“Well, I’m glad it’s not just because of me,” she admitted. Looking around idly, Nancy realized that it was getting kind of late in the afternoon. She knew that technically she was an adult and she could spend her time as she pleased, but she didn’t like the thought of what might happen if her mother found out she wasn’t at the library like she said she’d be. And what if Steve’s parents came home and saw the three of them like _this_? As much as she enjoyed being with Steve and Jonathan, she didn’t want to end up the talk of the town. Especially not for a relationship that was bound to be temporary. Fun, but short, right? It wasn’t like anyone actually _lived_ like this.

Nancy gave Jonathan one last kiss and a smile before scooting out of bed. She put her clothes back on, watching Jonathan lay back against Steve’s pillows. He pulled Steve close, kissing the top of his head and getting a murmur in return. Jonathan didn’t seem worried that Steve’s parents would come home unexpectedly. Of course, he also had the perfect excuse for being in Steve’s bedroom – helping Steve with his schoolwork. Nancy had no such excuse. 

After getting herself put back together, Nancy sat on the edge of the bed next to Jonathan. He took her hand, rubbing her palm gently with his thumb, and said, “You look like you’re getting ready to leave.”

“Yeah,” she said, thinking about how new this was and how she didn’t want to overstay her welcome. “I should get home. But maybe you could call me tomorrow sometime?”

“I could do that,” Jonathan replied. “I’m sure Steve will want to call you too, if that’s okay?”

“Yeah,” Nancy said with a smile and a chuckle. She leaned across Jonathan to give Steve a kiss on the cheek. He murmured something unintelligible. “Bye, guys.”

“Bye, Nancy,” Jonathan said, his voice careful with her name. 

Nancy leaned in and gave him one last kiss. She lingered just a little too long, she knew, but her whole body was begging her to stay, to take more of whatever they were willing to give her, to stay curled up on Jonathan’s other side, to _talk_ about whatever this was. It was her brain that objected, too smart by far to think something like this was going to end well. She should get out now. While she still could. 

“Bye, Jonathan,” she said, putting her shoes back on and picking up her school bag. She left the house carefully, escaping out to her car.


	5. Teenage Drama

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Jonathan reconnect after spending the afternoon with Nancy, and Jonathan helps Will with an errand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: a car crash happens in this chapter.

Steve dozed for a few minutes, cuddled against Jonathan, and when he woke up, he was feeling good, but not quite satisfied. Looking at Jonathan, who was staring up at the ceiling, Steve asked, "You okay, babe?"

Jonathan blinked a few times and looked over at Steve. "Yeah," he said, shifting so he could kiss Steve. "I'm just… dreading the day she decides she's done with us."

Steve chuckled and propped himself up on his elbow so he could look down at Jonathan. "Do I need to remind you that we've had fantastic sex without her? That we can  _ still _ have fantastic sex without her?"

A shadow of a smile on his lips, Jonathan shrugged. "Yeah, maybe. That was a little…"

"Hot, but really focused on her," Steve said, glad when Jonathan nodded. He ducked in, nuzzling against Jonathan's neck. "Are you used to being the center of attention? Princess?"

"That's even worse than Jonny," he muttered, but he arched his back prettily and sucked in a sharp breath when Steve scraped his lower teeth gently along the skin of Jonathan's neck. 

"Mm," Steve said, shifting until he had his hips cradled between Jonathan's thighs and his cock lined up next to Jonathan's. "If you're up for it, I still really, really want to fuck you."

"Shit, yeah," Jonathan said, grabbing Steve's face and tugging him into a desperate kiss. Steve gave him the kisses he must have been craving before breaking away and kissing down Jonathan's neck and chest. Steve was halfway to his belly button when Jonathan covered his face with his hands and murmured, "I must be really fucked up."

"Why?" Steve asked, pressing another kiss to Jonthan's chest. 

Keeping his hands over his face, he breathed for a few silent moments before saying, "I can't help wanting to watch you fuck her."

The thought of Jonathan watching him with those dark, turned-on eyes of his made a thrill run down Steve's spine and a guttural noise escape his lips. "Yeah?"

Jonathan nodded, still without looking down at Steve. "Or...or you watching me. Telling me what to do."

"Like last night?" Steve asked, pressing a kiss and then a little lick to the head of Jonathan's cock.

He gasped and then squirmed when Steve took his cock in hand and stroked it before licking again. "Ooh, God! Why are you…?"

"Foreplay," Steve told him. "I don't think you want me to just stick it in without getting you warmed up, do you?" Steve stroked him and licked again, loving the way he could feel Jonathan get harder because of him.

Panting, Jonathan said, "I know I just came, like half an hour ago. Ah! But...but I feel like if you...keep doing  _ that _ ...I'll…"

"Message received," Steve said, watching Jonathan's face as he gave one last, slow lick before leaving off. Reaching for the drawer of his nightstand, Steve said, "I got some stuff."

“What kind of stuff?” Jonathan asked, watching as Steve pulled a package of condoms and a tube of jelly out of the drawer.

“Stuff-stuff,” Steve told him, trying to think how he wanted to do this. He settled on laying back against the pillows and pulling Jonathan onto him so they were face to face. Jonathan’s knees ended up on either side of Steve’s hips and he pulled Jonathan into a few long, slow kisses. 

While they kissed, Steve ran his hands down Jonathan’s back, reaching Jonathan’s ass and squeezing one globe in each of his hands. His butt wasn’t as ample as some of the others Steve had squeezed, but it belonged to Jonathan, so Steve loved it. 

He also loved the way massaging Jonathan’s ass made him make small wanting noises, scooting up so his knees were closer to Steve’s armpits and it was easier to pull Jonathan’s ass cheeks apart and run a gentle thumb over Jonathan’s hole. 

“Fuck,” Jonathan muttered, scooting closer and pillaging Steve’s lips with his own.

Steve had to get some of the jelly out by feel, but then he brushed it across Jonathan’s hole. He dipped the tip of one finger in before tugging gently at the rim and spreading the jelly out further.

Jonathan gasped and put his head down in the crook of Steve’s shoulder. Steve got a little more jelly and dipped his finger in farther, really getting everything nice and wet. Jonathan pressed his mouth to Steve’s skin, making a low, wanting sort of noise. The next time Steve dipped his finger in, Jonathan groaned again, tilting his hips and rubbing his cock against Steve’s belly. “That feel good?” Steve asked him, genuinely curious.

“Mm-hmm,” Jonathan replied, rubbing his cock against Steve again. Steve’s own cock felt ignored and almost lonely, but he could deal because he was so close to getting to finally fuck Jonathan. “I need... _ more _ .”

Then Jonathan rolled them so Steve was on top, pulling Steve into a desperate kiss, sucking on Steve’s tongue. He pulled Steve’s hips closer, and oh, yeah. He was ready.

Steve kissed Jonathan a couple more times before pulling back. He found one of the condoms and got it out of its wrapper, putting it on while Jonathan watched him with dark, half-closed eyes. Steve tried not to let his hands shake as he squeezed a lot of jelly onto his hand, but he couldn’t help but be nervous. It was only the second time he’d ever done this, the first time with Jonathan. He wanted it to be amazing, and worried that it wouldn’t be.

After slicking himself up, Steve used one hand to stroke the leftover lube on Jonathan’s cock, making him gasp and moan again softly. Then he used the other hand to help aim his cock. He thrust lightly, just getting a feel for how deep Jonathan would let him go.

“Oh!” Jonathan said, putting his arms above him and bracing against the headboard, pushing back against Steve’s next thrust. 

“Fuck, babe,” Steve muttered, working his way a little farther in. Jonathan was tight, but slick, clenching around the head of Steve’s cock. “You like this?”

“More,” Jonathan ordered, and Steve got fed up trying to do two things at once. He used both hands to push Jonathan’s knees up, and then he was slipping deeper, Jonathan hot and tight around him. “Oh, Steve! There! Theretherethere.”

Steve focused on thrusting his cock against the spot Jonathan liked, trying desperately not to come too early. 

Jonathan let go of the headboard and grabbed Steve by the back of the neck. He curled up, pressing desperate kisses to Steve’s lips. 

“I can’t, babe,” Steve told him, shaking his head. “It feels too good. You feel so good. I love you so much.”

“Come on,” Jonathan said, kissing him again. “Just a little faster. Just a… I’m almost…”

Head back on the pillow, Jonathan arched his back. Steve bit the inside of his cheek and sped up like Jonathan wanted, before watching him reach down and tug his own cock several times. 

“Oh!” Jonathan cried out, clenching against Steve, spurting come onto his own chest, and Steve’s arm and the underside of his chin. 

Steve pressed in a little further, fighting against how Jonathan clenched around him once. Twice. On the third time he came, muttering, “Oh, Jon. Yes! Shit!”

After kind of drifting off a bit, Steve came to with Jonathan kissing him and tilting his hips away so Steve slipped out. Sighing happily, Steve gave Jonathan another kiss and then rolled away just long enough to clean up. Before he could catch Jonathan and hold him for a while, he was up and out of the bed, pulling his clothes back on.

“Going somewhere?” Steve asked him, sprawling out on his bed, satisfied and pleasantly worn out.

“Just getting dressed. In case your parents come home,” he replied, giving a little wince. 

“Hey,” Steve said, suddenly feeling intensely guilty. He sat up and reached for Jonathan. “Are you okay?”

Pulling his shirt on, Jonathan smiled and said, “I’m more than okay.” He came over to where Steve was sitting on the bed, cupped Steve’s face in his hands, and kissed him. Then he admitted, “Just a little bit sore.”

“Fuck, I’m sorry,” Steve said, holding onto Jonathan’s wrists. “I knew I should have gone slower.”

“I didn’t  _ want  _ you to go slower,” Jonathan insisted. “It’s fine. I’m fine. Great, even.”

Steve smiled. “Good.” He turned Jonathan’s hands palm-up, kissing the center of one, then the other. He met Jonathan’s eyes and told him, as clearly as possible, “I love you.”

Jonathan scoffed and looked away. “You’re just saying that because I let you fuck me.”

“No, I’m not,” Steve insisted, feeling more than a little hurt at Jonathan’s accusation. “Hey, I mean it, okay?”

Jonathan looked at Steve for a long moment before nodding, a slight smile on his lips when he looked down and away. Not letting him off the hook that easily, Steve chased him down into another kiss. And then another. 

~*~

Sunday, after dinner, Jonathan looked up at a knock on his door, seeing Will standing there. "Hey. What's up?"

"Can you drive me over to Mike's?" Will asked, wringing his hands together. "I'd bike, but it's cold out and it's already kind of late, but I really have to…" Will sighed. "I have to talk to him."

Since the only Sunday evening plans Jonathan had involved covering for Tim, who suddenly didn't need him to take the shift, last-minute, Jonathan shrugged and said, "Sure." Idly, he wondered if he could see Nancy while Will was talking to Mike. Sitting up from his bed and putting his shoes on, Jonathan asked, "How long is this talk supposed to last?" 

"I don't know," Will said, looking a little grim. "I guess it depends on how Mike reacts."

_ Shit _ . Jonathan turned Will by the shoulder, a little annoyed at how quickly he was catching up to Jonathan's height. "Hey. You don't  _ have _ to tell him anything. If there's a chance he--"

Cutting Jonathan off, Will shook his head, saying, "No. I need to tell him. It's killing me not to."

Jonathan came to the realization that his brother was much braver than him. Whether Will's bravery would serve him well was another matter. 

"Okay," Jonathan told him, gesturing toward the front door. "Let's do this."

The drive over to the Wheelers' house was quiet, until Will asked, "Are you going to tell Mom?"

Jonathan winced. He was fairly certain his mother would be supportive, but there was that little Lonnie-voiced thought in the back of his head that said admitting he was in love with a boy was going to be the weirdness straw that broke the camel's back. Jonathan was already quiet, and low on friends, and strange. What if Joyce decided she could deal with all the other stuff, but not this? The town already looked down on her because they thought she was crazy. If they found out she had not just one queer son, but two? What would they end up doing to her?

"I don't know," Jonathan replied. "Are you going to tell Mom?"

Will echoed Jonathan, saying, "I don't know."

Yeah, that sounded about right.

When they got to the Wheelers' house, Jonathan asked Will, "Do you want me to wait?"

"You don't have to. I can call when I need a ride back," Will said, but Jonathan recognized that tone in his brother's voice. 

Nodding, Jonathan told him, "I'll wait here, at least for a little while. If things are going good, you can come tell me to take a hike."

Will gave what sounded an awful lot like a sigh of relief. "Okay. Yeah, I can do that." He looked up at the house. "I can do this."

"You've got this," Jonathan assured him, patting Will's shoulder in what he hoped was an encouraging manner.

After one last nervous look, Will nodded again and got out of the car. He went up to the house and rang the doorbell, and a minute later, Nancy let him in. Jonathan wondered if he should go say hello, but before he made up his mind, Nancy was walking across the frosty front lawn toward him. Jonathan got out of the car, leaning against the trunk as he waited for her to reach him. 

"Hey," Nancy said, smiling at Jonathan and leaning against the car next to him. "What's going on?"

"Teenage drama," Jonathan told her, nodding toward the house and Will inside it. "How are you?"

"Good," she said, wrapping her arms around herself. 

Without thinking, Jonathan put his arm around her shoulders, holding her close to warm her up. It was only after she smiled up at him that Jonathan realized as close as they'd gotten over the past few days, Nancy  _ wasn't _ his girlfriend. Though he supposed technically, they had gone on  _ a _ date together with Steve. That meant they were dating, right?

Leaning close, Nancy asked, "How are you doing?"

"Good," he answered her truthfully. "I was going to work today, but they didn't need me."

"Where do you work?" Nancy asked, and it seemed strange to him that she didn't know.

He told her with a shrug, "At the Save-mart. It's just bagging groceries and returning carts. Stocking shelves. That kind of thing."

"And you tutor Steve,  _ and  _ you get straight As," Nancy said, shaking her head. "I don't know how you do it all."

"I don't know," Jonathan told her. "I don't really have friends. Or extracurriculars like sports or anything."

Looking over at the house, Nancy linked one of her hands around Jonathan's arm. "You want to come inside for a few minutes? It's warmer in there."

"Um, sure," Jonathan said, not really looking forward to looking either of Nancy's parents in the eye now that he knew what their daughter looked like naked. Or, mostly naked, anyway. Maybe his practice taking a monthly check from Mr. Harrington without letting on that he was also dating Steve would help him out. 

Or, the fact that Nancy was holding his hand as they walked toward the house. It wouldn't shock anyone if it came out that he and Nancy were dating. Not the way it would disrupt things if anyone found out about his and Steve's relationship. Jonathan couldn't help but be a little uncomfortable with it, since the three of them hadn't talked about who was supposed to know what yet.

When they got in the house, Nancy called out, "Mom! Jonathan and I are putting the final touches on our project for English class! We'll be up in my room."

"Okay!" Mrs. Wheeler called back. "Keep the door open!"

Nancy chuckled and scoffed. "I think she's still getting used to the fact that I'm an adult now."

"Yeah, probably," Jonathan replied. "Especially if you haven't had a boyfriend before." Jonathan realized what it sounded like he was implying only after the words came out of his mouth. "I mean… Not that I'm assuming  _ I _ \--"

With a laugh, Nancy said, "Don't worry. I didn't think you were." She led the way into her room, and Jonathan had to say, he was surprised by how  _ pink _ her room was. Sitting down on her bed, Nancy patted the mattress next to her. Knowing this was tricky, given how much he  _ still _ wanted her, and how much he loved Steve and didn't want to hurt him, Jonathan sat down carefully. Turning toward him, Nancy asked, "Have you talked to Steve today?"

"Yeah," Jonathan told her. "Earlier, for a bit. Why?"

"Just…" Nancy shrugged, taking Jonathan's hand and holding it with both of hers. "I don't want to mess things up between you two."

"You haven't," Jonathan said, leaving off the, "not yet." 

"So, you guys are good?"

Thinking about everything that had happened  _ after _ Nancy left Steve's the day before, Jonathan nodded. "Yeah, we're good." He remembered the feeling of being fucked by the person who loved him, and Jonathan shuddered, half-hard again at the memory. "Really,  _ really _ good."

"Yeah?" Nancy asked, and he thought she maybe looked a little apprehensive. Her brow was furrowed and her lips were parted, almost in a pout. 

Jonathan kissed her before he realized what he was doing. Just one second he was thinking she looked insanely gorgeous, and the next he had his lips pressed to hers, his hands cupping her face. Nancy took a sharp breath, but she kissed him back, clutching at his arms, holding him close. He wanted to fuck her so bad, he felt like he might go insane with desire. 

But Steve wasn’t here, so it was against the rules. Plus, all of Nancy’s family, and Jonathan’s brother, were in the house. Jonathan made himself break the kiss, pulling away and licking the taste of her from his lips. He cleared his throat and said, “Sorry. I shouldn’t…”

“Yeah,” Nancy said, but she gave him one more quick kiss and a smile. “I really did want to show you my half of our project. I thought if you had it tonight, maybe you might spot something that we should change during study hall tomorrow.”

Smiling at her, Jonathan said, “Sure.”

Nancy stood up and went over to her desk, opening one of the folders there and taking out a few pieces of paper. “Here it is. My half of the paper.” As Nancy handed it over, she said, “I’m really glad Mrs. Baker paired us together.”

“Me too,” he told her, taking the papers and rolling them up before stowing the roll in his inside jacket pocket. He let Nancy kiss him once, okay,  _ twice _ more. “I know Steve really likes you, too.”

With half a smile, Nancy looked down at her hands in her lap. “Don’t make fun of me, but I’ve kind of had a crush on Steve for a while. When he showed up at your house on Friday, I kind of thought I was dreaming again.”

Jonathan laughed. For some reason, he’d thought Nancy was too smart and sophisticated to have something as human as a  _ crush _ . Jonathan told her, “I really thought I hated him, until I spent the first couple minutes alone with him. He’s different outside of school.”

“Yeah,” Nancy agreed, looking up when a set of footsteps walked quickly past her door, another set following them. 

“Will,  _ wait _ ,” Mike’s voice said, but the footsteps kept going, starting down the stairs. 

Standing up, Jonathan told Nancy, “That’s my cue. I’ll see you tomorrow? Study hall?”

“If not before,” Nancy agreed, placing a quick kiss on Jonathan’s cheek before letting him go with a soft, “Goodbye.”

“Bye, Nancy.”

Jonathan caught up to Will halfway across the lawn, but he knew better than to stop him or ask if he was okay. Jonathan simply unlocked the car doors and got the engine started, pulling away from the curb as soon as he and Will were both buckled. 

A few blocks later, Jonathan asked his brother, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really,” Will said. At least he wasn’t crying. “He doesn’t like me that way. I never really thought he would.”

Jonathan wanted to ask Will why he’d risked telling Mike at all, if he knew it wasn’t going to go the way he hoped. Then Jonathan realized that Will wasn’t nearly as cynical as Jonathan. Why wouldn’t he tell his best friend about his feelings? 

Then Will added, “Guess I’ll find out tomorrow if I really screwed things up by telling him.”

“Mike is a good kid,” Jonathan assured him. “I’m sure everything is going to be fine.”

“Yeah,” Will muttered, sounding far too jaded for a fourteen year old. “Sure.”

Jonathan turned onto Kerley Boulevard, squinting a little at the dark road ahead of them, despite the headlights being on already. "Doesn't this road usually have street lamps?" he asked.

Will made a non-committal noise before saying, "Maybe the power's out."

"Yeah, maybe," Jonathan said, switching on his brights. They got halfway to the next turn before a tall figure ran out into the road ahead of them. 

"Shit!" Jonathan said, trying to steer around the figure while also stepping on the break. The tires squealed and the car hit the curb, jumping it and skidding sideways down the bank. The passenger side of the car crashed into something and they spun.

Then Jonathan's head hit the window and he passed out.

~*~

Nancy watched Jonathan and Will drive away for a moment before turning on her brother. “First Will went home in tears on Friday, and now this? What’s going on?” She wondered if it had to do with Jonathan’s “teenage drama” comment earlier.

“It’s none of your business,” Mike sneered at her. “Why was Jonathan in your bedroom?”

“I’ll tell you when you tell me what’s going on with you and Will.”

Mike gave Nancy a long look – God, she hated that he was taller than her now – and said, “Not here.”

“Jesus, fine,” she said, grabbing his wrist and pulling him toward the stairs. “Let’s go to your room.”

“Fine,” Mike repeated, twisting his arm out of Nancy’s grasp. Nancy sighed but followed him up to his room, closing the door behind them. 

“So?” She asked, crossing her arms as Mike sat down heavily on the bottom bunk of his bed. “What’s going on?”

“You have to swear to secrecy,” Mike told her, giving Nancy a very serious look until she nodded. 

“Yeah, okay. My lips are sealed.”

“Okay,” Mike said, taking a breath and letting it out slowly. “Will told me he’s–he’s gay.”

“Oh,” Nancy said, the word “gay” making her picture vividly Jonathan and Steve kissing each other. “Okay.” Thinking of the way Will left, Nancy narrowed her eyes at her brother. “You didn’t give him shit for telling you that, did you?”

“No!” Mike insisted, to Nancy’s relief. 

“Then what’s the problem?”

Mike covered his face with his hands and groaned for a long second before telling her, “He likes me. Like-likes me. But I don’t like him back.”

“Oh,” Nancy said, leaning against Mike’s desk. “Yeah, I could see how that would be a problem.”

“You know what’s the worst part?” Mike asked with a sad huff. 

Nancy shook her head. “No.”

“If I  _ did  _ like guys, I would like him,” Mike said, throwing himself back onto the bed. “Will is awesome! He’s my best friend.”

“But you don’t like guys,” Nancy said, idly wondering how Jonathan or Steve had been when they realized they were attracted to boys, too. 

“No, I like girls,” Mike insisted. “I’ve always had crushes on girls. And Max has this friend, Samantha. She’s really cool and she played D&D with us on Friday. I mean, if I like girls, that means I can’t like boys, right?”

Jonathan and Steve both on her mind, Nancy replied, “Not necessarily. There are some people who like both.”

“Both? Girls and boys?” Mike scoffed. “That’s not a thing.”

“Yes it is,” Nancy told him. “And it’s more common than people realize.” Unless Nancy had stumbled across the only two bisexual guys in the whole town, Nancy figured it had to be more common than people talked about.

Mike frowned, appearing to think about this for a moment. Then he shook his head. “What am I supposed to do at school tomorrow? When I have to see Will again. Pretend I don’t know? But I  _ do _ know.”

Nancy thought about seeing Jonathan and Steve in the hallways at school in the morning, and trying to pretend she didn’t know they were together. That was one thing, but trying to pretend that she didn’t know what it felt like to be pressed in between them, mostly naked, skin-against-skin? Yeah, that was going to be a challenge. 

“Just  _ try _ ,” Nancy told him.

Mike nodded. Then he looked over at Nancy and asked, “So why was Jonathan in your room?”

“We have an English project we’re working on together,” Nancy told him, and it wasn’t  _ exactly _ a lie. It just wasn’t the whole truth.

“Uh-huh,” Mike said, in that way Nancy knew meant he wasn’t buying it. 

Nancy rolled her eyes and admitted, “We  _ maybe _ went on a date yesterday.”

“Maybe?” Mike asked her. “How can you 'maybe' go on a date?”

Shrugging, Nancy told him, “I don’t know. We were studying beforehand. Went out for lunch. It’s still really new. I'm not sure it’s going to go anywhere.”

Mike nodded and gave half a shrug. "I'm going to go practice my 'I don't know anything' face." With that, he left. 

Nancy laid down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, and wondering how the hell she was going to explain to Mike, much less her  _ parents,  _ that she was kind of dating two boys. And they were dating each other, too.


	6. The Missing Brother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The others find out about Jonathan and Will's accident.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: period-typical homophobia in this chapter

Steve frowned over at Jonathan's locker. Usually he would have shown up by now. The bell was going to ring in just a couple of minutes, and ever since Steve had started paying attention to him, Jonathan hadn't ever been late for school. His absence was weird, and it made Steve worried. What if… what if he'd been lying the other day? And on the phone yesterday? What if he hadn't liked having sex with Steve? Krissy hadn't seemed to, after all. What if, now that Steve had told Jonathan he loved him, he got freaked out and was avoiding him?

_Fuck_.

"Hey, Space Case," Tommy said, pounding his fist on the locker next to Steve's and making him jump. "Where were you all weekend? We thought you were coming to the diner after the game."

Steve rolled his eyes. He wanted to tell Tommy that he'd been busy getting laid, but Tommy would want to know by _who_ , and Steve couldn't exactly say it was Jonathan. Not without Tommy trying to knock his teeth out, the way he'd punched that Payton kid back in freshman year. 

Steve was glad high school was almost over. Maybe he'd follow Jonathan to wherever he was going to school and make new, less homophobic friends there. Of course, that was assuming Jonathan still wanted him, which Steve was starting to doubt this morning.

"I had stuff to take care of," Steve ended up telling Tommy, noticing Nancy approaching him. 

"Hey," she said, looking about as worried as Steve felt.

"Ohh," Tommy said with a wide grin, walking behind Nancy and pointing at the back of her head. He mouthed, "Stuff," at Steve and then laughed as he joined Carol on their way to class.

Ignoring Tommy, Nancy asked in a quiet voice, "Have you seen Jonathan this morning?"

"No," Steve told her. "I talked to him yesterday. He seemed fine then. Maybe he just got here early?" Steve rolled his eyes. "Or, he's hiding out in the darkroom for some reason."

"What reason?" Nancy asked.

"Who knows?" Steve shrugged again and told her, "I'm sure he's fine. If we haven't seen him by lunch, then we can worry, alright?"

Nancy pressed her lips together for a second before nodding. "Yeah. Right. I'm sure you're right. I'll see you later."

"Hey," Steve said, grabbing his books and catching up to Nancy. "Let me walk you, okay?"

Giving him a smile, Nancy nodded and said, "Yeah. Okay."

She was so little and cute compared to Jonathan, but Steve found he couldn't say he was more attracted to one of them than the other. He _loved_ Jonathan, but he had feelings for Nancy too. He liked her so much he could barely stand it. To ease some of that ache, Steve put his arm around Nancy's shoulders, and grinned when she smiled up at him, allowing it.

He was late to first period, but that was a minor infraction compared to all the other ways he screwed up at school all the time. Mrs. Wood barely batted an eye when he came in late, taking his seat next to Tommy, near the back of the class. The first class he shared with Jonathan was study hall, during third, but he wasn't there, either. As third period started, Nancy looked even more freaked out than she had before school. 

She sat down next to Steve and whispered, "Jonathan and Will were over at my house last night. They were both fine when they left just after eight." Then she pointed to her brother across the room. "Mike says Will isn't at school today either."

"Shit," Steve replied, noticing that Mike looked anxious, bouncing his leg like that. "Do you think something happened?"

"Maybe they're both sick?" Nancy suggested, but she didn't look like she believed it.

Taking a quarter out of his pocket, Steve gave it to her and said, "Ask Miss Brown if you can go to the bathroom, and try calling the house. There's a phone next to the cafeteria."

As her fingers closed around the coin, Nancy asked, "Why can't you call?"

Sighing, Steve told her, "Miss Brown always thinks I'm lying and trying to skip when I need to pee. I don't want to give her a reason to be right."

With a little bit of a laugh and a shake of her head, Nancy nodded. Then she said, "I don't know the number. My mom has it written down at home because of Will, but I don't know it off the top of my head."

"I do," Steve told her, ripping a piece of paper from the back of his math notebook and jotting the number down. "There."

"Thanks," she said, kissing Steve's cheek. 

From the next table over, Vick Harris murmured, "Oooooooh!" 

Nancy's cheeks went pink, but she gave Steve another small smile and went back to her table. She put her things back in her bag, and then went up to Miss Brown. With a sympathetic look, Miss Brown nodded, then wrote her out a yellow hall pass. Nancy took it and left.

Steve wished he would have come up with some sort of excuse for going with her, but Miss Brown had it in for him. He sighed and went back to his work, reading the instructions three times because he didn’t have Jonathan there to interpret them for him. 

Nancy came back ten minutes later, sitting down next to Steve. “No one answered,” she said. A sudden buzz of voices made Steve look up, and at the front of the library was standing a cop in uniform.

“Oh, shit,” he said as the cop pointed to Mike and gestured him over. Then he was gesturing to Nancy, too. “Oh, shit,” Steve repeated, pushing his things into his bag and following Nancy up to the front. 

Miss Brown stood up, saying, “Steve, please return to your seat,” but he ignored her. 

Instead, he asked the cop, “It’s the Byers, isn’t it? Something happened to them.”

The cop looked him in the eyes for a moment before nodding. “There’s been a car crash.”

Steve heard Nancy gasp and the room tilted kind of sideways before a strong grip on his arm was putting Steve back upright on his feet. 

“Is he–?” Steve tried to ask, holding onto Nancy when she wrapped her arms around him. 

“The older boy, Jonathan, is in the hospital,” the cop told him, still holding his hands out like he was thinking he might have to catch Steve again, “the younger one is missing. We were hoping to get a little more information from the people who saw them last.” He pointed to Nancy and Mike. “There was a note saying they’d gone to your house. Your mother said they stopped by, and that she would meet us here shortly.”

“No,” Mike said, shaking his head. “No, no. Will can’t be _missing_. I just saw him last night.”

“Which is why we want to talk to you,” the cop said. “Come on, son. Miss Wheeler.”

Steve made to follow them, but the cop shook his head. “Unless you saw either of the Byers boys between six and eight thirty last night, we don’t need you.”

Steve had hung up after talking to Jonathan around five, because it hadn’t been all that long before dinner. He shook his head, but then he told Nancy, “I’m going to sign myself out and go to the hospital.”

She nodded. “Give him my best when you see him, okay?”

Thinking she looked like she could use some affection, Steve gave Nancy a quick kiss on the cheek. Then he excused himself to the office, telling them he had a family emergency and signing the log book that said he was leaving midday. He stopped at his locker long enough to grab his coat and stow his bag, before heading out to the car.

~*~

Jonathan woke up a few times in the car, cold and unfocused, unable to move. The last time, he was shivering and there was someone shouting at him from outside the car. His head hurt, his ears ringing and he didn’t understand what they were saying. 

The door opened with a loud screeching sound that made Jonathan’s ears feel like they were going to bleed. He used one hand to cover his left ear, but his right arm wasn’t moving right. 

“What?” he asked, more shivers making his body tremble as someone leaned over him, shining a light into his face. 

“...know where you are?” the person asked, putting a heavy blanket over his chest and lap.

“Car,” Jonathan told them. “My car.” He tried to look over to where Will was supposed to be, but turning his neck hurt like crazy. “Will?” he asked the person. “My brother. My brother was here.”

“Someone else was in the car?” they asked, and Jonathan nodded. 

“Yeah.”

The person (Jonathan thought he might have been a firefighter) turned and called out to someone else, “Look around for someone ejected from the car. He says his brother was with him.”

Then the firefighter or paramedic or whatever he was turned back to Jonathan and asked, “What is your brother’s name?”

“Will,” Jonathan told him, trying to get out of the car, but the movement made him dizzy and sick. “Will Byers. I’m Jonathan Byers.” Blinking, he saw that it was daylight out. The sun was up. “No, no, no,” he said, thinking this wasn’t right. “What happened? It was night.”

“You crashed your car,” he said, wrapping something stiff around Jonathan’s neck and securing it. “What’s the last thing you remember? Were you drinking?”

“No!” Jonathan insisted, trying to remember the night before. “We were driving home, and the streetlights were out. Someone ran into the road. I swerved, and…” Jonathan tried to look over to the other side of the car, but the collar around his neck kept him from moving anything except his eyes. “Where’s my brother?”

“Let’s worry about you for right now, Jonathan. How old are you?”

“Eighteen,” he said, wincing when the paramedic touched his right arm.

“Do you want us to call your parents?”

The thought of his mother coming home from work to an empty house, not knowing what had happened to them made Jonathan’s chest ache. “Y-yes. Yes. Call my mom,” he said, tears in his eyes that were only a little bit about the pain. “Her name is Joyce Byers.”

“Oh, you’re Lonnie’s kid,” he said, and Jonathan glared at him, the tears in his eyes making everything look watery. If there was any name Jonathan wanted to hear less right now than his father’s, Jonathan couldn’t think of it.

“Just get me out of here, okay?” Jonathan said through gritted teeth.

“Okay,” the paramedic replied, waving over another guy.

The two of them got Jonathan out of his wrecked car and onto a stretcher, which they carried up out of the ditch onto the road, where the ambulance was waiting. 

Jonathan wasn’t worried about or sorry for himself. Mostly he was worried about Will, about what could have happened to him, about whether he was still alive or not. After that, he was worried about how the hell they were going to replace his car and pay for the ambulance and the hospital, all without insurance. His mom was going to have to sell the house, and probably go bankrupt, and it was all Jonathan’s fault.

By the time he got to the hospital, his mom was waiting there, her eyes red with tears. “Oh, thank god!” she said when she saw him, rushing over to the stretcher they had him on. “You’re alive! Oh, you’re alive, my baby!”

Jonathan started crying again, telling her, “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I don’t know what happened to him!”

“You let me worry about that,” she told him, walking alongside when one of the doctors directed them to a bed in the ER. 

Between an orderly and one of the paramedics, they got him transferred over to the bed without too much trouble. After the doctor looked him over, he said, “Broken arm. We’ll get an x-ray so we know how best to set it, whether we’ll need to do surgery for an open fixation or not. It depends on how many fractures we see. If there’s just one or two simple fractures, we might be able to get by with a fairly straightforward setting and casting procedure.”

“Whatever he needs,” Joyce said, with a determined nod.

“I am worried about the prolonged loss of consciousness,” the doctor told her. He turned to Jonathan and asked, “How long were you out, would you say?”

“I don’t know,” Jonathan told him. “It was half past eight, and we crashed. I woke up a couple times during the night, but I kept falling back asleep. Then the paramedics were there.”

The doctor gave a grave nod. “I’d like a few skull x-rays as well, to make sure we’re not dealing with any skill fractures, maybe a CT scan to assess the severity of the concussion.”

“That sounds expensive,” Jonathan said.

Joyce scoffed and put her hand on Jonathan’s uninjured wrist. “Oh, don’t worry about that. We’ll figure it all out later.”

By the time Jonathan got back from the CT scan, Steve was sitting in the room, waiting for him. He stood up as the orderly wheeled Jonathan back in and got him up on the bed. “Hey,” he said, moving closer as the orderly left. “When they told me there was a car crash, I was so scared.”

“C’mere,” Jonathan said, pulling Steve close and just holding onto him with his good arm for a moment. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Yeah, I know.” Steve pulled a chair closer to the bed and sat down in it. “Your mom went to go talk to the chief about searching for Will. They think he left the car confused and got lost.”

“He’s not dead?” Jonathan asked, wiping his leaking eyes with his good hand.

Steve shook his head. “The back door was open and they found footprints.”

Nodding, Jonathan said. “Good. That’s good.”

“Yeah.” Steve gave him somewhat of a half smile. “Your mom said to tell you she’ll be back later, and I’m supposed to get you whatever you need.”

Jonathan laughed wetly. “Yeah? Whatever I need?”

“Hey, who am I to argue with your mom?” Steve grinned, putting his hand on Jonathan’s thigh and squeezing gently. He took his hand away again when footsteps approached. 

“Okay, Jonathan,” said the same doctor from before, stopping short when he saw Steve. “Is it okay to talk about your condition in front of your friend, or would you rather…?”

Steve started to stand up, but Jonathan waved him back down, saying, “It’s fine. What’s the news?”

“Besides the arm fracture, a touch of hypothermia, and the concussion, you’re in relatively good shape. Your brain looks better on the CT scan than I would have thought, given the amount of time you were unconscious. The cold weather might have actually helped you out a bit there. I would like to admit you at least overnight for observation, just in case we missed something.” The doctor smiled and told him, “I think we’re looking at a full recovery.”

“No surgery?” Jonathan asked, nodding down to his splinted arm. 

“No,” the doctor replied with an encouraging smile. “We’ll get that arm set and casted right away, before we admit you and move you upstairs.”

“Great,” Jonathan said, sagging with relief when the doctor left. Steve sat back down, but on the bed, pulling Jonathan into another hug. He sighed and pressed his face into Steve’s neck and, because he was really, really feeling it, said, “I love you too.”

Steve chuckled. “You’re just saying that because I’m nursing you back to health.”

Jonathan smiled, but he couldn’t quite summon up a laugh. Holding Steve tighter, he asked, “Are you gonna get in trouble for missing school?”

“I don’t care,” Steve said. “This is more important.”

For a second, Jonathan remembered that he had Nancy’s half of the project that was due today in his coat pocket. Well, if Ms. Baker couldn’t give them an extension because of a car accident and a hospital stay, Jonathan would take that argument all the way up to the superintendent if he had to. Nancy didn’t deserve a bad grade just because some idiot ran out into a dark road right in front of his car. 

There was something Jonathan...didn’t like about his memory of the person in the road. It seemed wrong, somehow. Unnatural. 

Hugging Steve tighter, Jonathan said out loud, because that seemed like the only way to make himself believe it, “My brother is missing.”

“Your brother is missing,” Steve agreed, giving Jonathan one last squeeze before letting him lay back against the propped-up head of the bed. “I’m sure they’ll find him. I heard something about search parties going out and looking for him. I’m bet they’ll run across him sooner rather than later.”

Trying not to have too much false hope, Jonathan nodded. “Yeah. I’m sure you’re right.”

~*~

After telling the police officer about Jonathan’s visit the night before (leaving out the kissing), Nancy was allowed to return to class. All she wanted to do was leave and go to the hospital like Steve had, but she had a test in calculus that would be hellish to try to make up. At lunch, Nancy sat with Barb, picking at her sandwich, but not really eating it. 

Eventually, Barb said, “Wow. You really like Jonathan, huh?”

“Yeah,” she admitted, noticing Mike approaching her table. 

“Hey,” he said, stealing one of Nancy’s grapes and speaking as he chewed it. “Some of us are going to look for Will after school. Are you in?”

Unable to understand how Mike could be eating while his best friend was _missing_ , Nancy said, “After I visit Jonathan in the hospital, sure.”

“Mirkwood, seven o’clock,” he said, like that was supposed to mean anything to Nancy. He left before she could ask him to clarify. 

“Is that really a good idea?” Barb asked, watching Mike go back to his friends. “Why not join the search effort the police are putting on?”

“I don’t know, Barb,” Nancy said, wrapping up her sandwich and putting it back in her paper lunch bag. “Those kids know Will Byers better than anyone. If anyone’s going to know where to look for him, it’s them.”

A minute later, Robin Buckley sat down at their table, saying to Barb, “Hey. Everything set for our project?”

“Y-yeah,” Barb said, sounding flustered, which was unusual for her. Confused, Nancy glanced over at Barb and thought maybe she was blushing. “I finished putting everything together in fourth while Mrs. Benson was lecturing.”

“Cool,” Robin said, picking at the black polish on her nails. “That’s good. That we’re ready. Um…” She looked around a little before asking, “What about you, Nancy? Are you ready to turn in your project?”

Nancy tried to respond, but her eyes watered and she had to look up and blink the tears away so they wouldn’t fall. Not wanting to cry in front of the whole school, Nancy gathered up her things and headed for the bathroom. Yeah, that was a more respectable place to cry than the middle of the cafeteria.

Nancy wasn’t surprised that Barb was on her heels by the time she made it to the bathroom. She let her best friend hug her as she stood in the bathroom and cried. After a few minutes, Nancy managed to say, “This is stupid. I mean, I like him a lot, but I barely know him. And I’m crying over him?”

“It’s a scary situation,” Barb insisted, petting Nancy’s hair. “That could have been any of us, crashing like that. It’s not stupid.”

Sniffling, Nancy hugged Barb tighter and said, “Thanks.”

Ms. Baker was understanding about Nancy’s request for an extension, and as soon as school was out, Nancy went to her car and took it directly to the hospital. She noticed the gift shop on her way in and impulsively bought a stuffed bear before asking at the desk for Jonathan’s location. 

Nancy found the right room and knocked on the open door as she went through it. “Hello?”

Steve stepped out from behind a hanging privacy curtain. “Nance, hey,” he said, holding his hand out for Nancy to take. 

She let him lead her to the other side of the curtain, where Jonathan was laying. The left side of his face had some mottled bruising and there was a cast on his right arm, but otherwise he looked whole. Sighing with relief, Nancy went to him, giving him a gentle hug and a kiss on his right cheek. As she pulled back, she held out the bear to him, saying, "I, um. I got you this."

Jonathan smiled and took it, saying, "Thanks. I think I was six the last time someone gave me a stuffed animal." The careful smile he gave her told Nancy he was teasing. 

Chuckling, Nancy nodded, letting Steve put his arm around her shoulders. "My brother and his friends are going out tonight to look for Will. Do you…?" She didn't want to pile on, but if there was a chance they _could_ find Will, it wouldn't hurt Jonathan's recovery. "Do you know of any place in particular they should look? Any place Will might go?"

"Cops asked the same question a couple hours ago," Jonathan said with a shrug, his right shoulder moving less than his left, weighed down by the cast on his arm. "There's the fort we built in the woods behind our house, but they've already been through there. I don't know what those guys are going to find that the cops won't."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Nancy said, glancing over at Steve. "I think maybe they just want to help."

"Nothing wrong with that," Steve said, leaving Nancy and sitting on the bed next to Jonathan's legs. "I wish I could do something to help, but I'm probably already in deep shit with my parents for missing school. Bet Coach rags on me for missing practice, too."

Suddenly seeing how she could help other than just sitting around and giving Jonathan gifts he didn't need or want, Nancy told Steve, "I could sit with Jonathan for a while. So you can go to practice, if you want."

Steve gave Jonathan a look, and when Jonathan nodded, Steve said, "Yeah, okay. Thanks, Nancy. Gotta say I didn't think this would be one of the perks of sharing my boyfriend."

Nancy laughed and nodded, letting Steve take her and set her right back down in the place where he'd been sitting next to Jonathan. "Right there. Good," he said with a silly grin. He gave Nancy a quick kiss, and then leaned over so he could see around the privacy curtain, looking for anyone coming, before giving Jonathan a kiss too. When he pulled back, he had a soft smile on his face. He told Jonathan, "You can call me later, if you want."

"Okay," Jonathan replied, smiling back at him. "Talk to you later."

After Steve said his final goodbyes and left, Nancy turned her attention to Jonathan. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Jonathan shook his head and looked down. "I'm glad you're here, though. I kind of thought maybe this would be… I don't know, too much or something."

"It's not," Nancy assured him, reaching out and folding his left hand in hers. “I’m so sorry about your brother.”

His expression turned crestfallen and Jonathan shook his head. “I should have been driving slower. The street lamps were dark. It wasn’t safe.”

Now that she thought about it, Nancy remembered, “Oh, yeah. The electricity went out for a few seconds at our house. My mom was pissed because we had to reset all the clocks.”

“I just…” Jonathan started to say, but then he stopped.

“What?” 

Shaking his head, Jonathan said, “I can’t believe I let him down like that. He was already having a bad time with things, and I couldn’t get him home safely.”

Hating the way Jonathan looked like he was hurting, Nancy scooted closer and gently pulled him into a hug. “It was an accident, Jonathan. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Jonathan sighed. He didn’t agree with her, but he held on tight with his good arm for a long time.

~*~

Steve made it back to school just ten minutes after basketball practice started, and he was out on the court five minutes later. He was distracted though, by Jonathan in the hospital, by Will being missing, by Nancy getting so close to both of them so quickly. 

Mid-practice, Coach blew the whistle and called Steve over. “What’s going on, Harrington? You're blowing plays you know how to run in your sleep!"

Shaking his head, Steve told him, "Sorry, Coach. My friend is in the hospital. I guess I'm worried about him."

Coach sighed, but he gave an understanding nod. "Switch with Summers, take the small forward position for now. If you're going to be this distracted on Friday, I can't have you leading the team at point. Maybe we'll reassess next week, huh?"

Steve wanted to argue that Summers was too dumb to be point guard, and Coach should sub in Hargrove instead, even though Steve _hated_ Billy Hargrove. It would have been better for the team. Still, it wasn't his place to second-guess the coach. He just had to play harder, and prove he deserved his spot on the team. "Sure, Coach," he said, taking over Summers' position. 

This put him up against Tommy, who was on the other side of the skirmish. "Where did you run off to today?" Tommy asked him, blocking Steve's attempts to get open so Summers could pass him the ball.

"Felt like skipping," Steve told him. "What does it matter?"

"Because, Sylvia Lucas told Carol she heard that creepy weirdo, Jonathan Byers, was in a car crash."

"Oh, really?" Steve said, even though he knew playing dumb wasn't going to work. A bunch of people probably overheard him and Nancy talking to the cop during study hall. 

"Yeah. She said it looked like you just about fainted when you heard the news."

Steve got the ball passed to him and tried to dribble around Tommy, but Summers wasn't in the right place and he had no one to pass it to. Fucking Tommy. Fucking Summers.

Steve dribbled around the court, putting just enough distance between him and Tommy to make a long shot. It bounced off the rim, but hit the backboard and fell through the hoop. There. Two points. He lived to keep his spot on the team another day.

Running toward the other end of the court, waiting for John Hinkle to dribble the ball over, Steve tried to ignore Tommy, but it was hard when he had to guard the guy and make sure he couldn't accept a pass. Tommy sneered in Steve's ear, "What the hell does Jonathan Byers matter to you, Steve? He's a loser. A nobody."

If anything, Steve felt like a loser compared to Jonathan. He worked two jobs and helped his mom around the house and still got straight As. "Just fuck off and leave it alone, Tommy," Steve said, pushing his back against Tommy, guarding him from being able to accept a pass. "Jonathan's my friend."

" _That's_ why you've been so busy lately? You've been making friends with a loser? Jesus Christ, why?"

Knowing Tommy's next guess was going to be crude, and most likely _true_ , Steve said, "He's been helping me with school. My parents hired him to tutor me, okay? Can you just leave it _alone_?"

With a grin, Tommy got around him, snagging a pass from Hinkle and putting a layup through the hoop. As he came back around, Tommy said, "Hey, I remember what happened with your tutor last year. You were 'friends' with her, too, before all the making out. You'd better watch yourself, Harrington. I've heard gay is catching."

Steve was pushing Tommy to the ground before he realized what he was doing. Coach blew the whistle and Steve knew he was on thin ice, so he put his hands up, backing away from Tommy, but keeping eyes on him just in case he tried to retaliate.

"Harrington, a word?" Coach said. 

Keeping his eyes on Tommy, Steve went over to the sidelines. Tearing his eyes away from Tommy as that asshole, Billy Hargrove, helped him up, Steve said, "Sorry, Coach. He insulted one of my friends."

"I don't care if he insulted your _mother_ ," Coach replied. "If you do that shit during a game, you’ll be giving the other team free throws. Those are points we can’t afford to lose!”

“I understand,” Steve told him. “Can I get back out there?”

“Go home,” Coach said. “Get your head back on straight. Come back tomorrow ready to be part of this team. Got it?”

“Got it,” Steve said. As he left the gym, he heard Tommy and Billy laughing. They had to be laughing at him, and the thought of it made Steve just want to pound their stupid faces in. Of course, that would cause more problems than it would solve. 

Steve didn’t bother to shower at the school, just threw a sweatshirt on over his practice clothes, got his books from his locker in the main hallway, and went home. His mom’s car was in the driveway when he got there, but he didn’t go looking for her inside the house. 

He showered and put on clothes that were comfortable, if not “dinner appropriate,” before heading toward the kitchen. His mom was there, a glass of wine in one hand and a spoon in the other, stirring something on the stove.

“Steven!” she said, catching him by the arm and leaning close to kiss him on the cheek. Then she looked at what he was wearing. “Darling, you know we dress appropriately at the dinner table.”

Steve sighed. “It’s been a bad day, okay? Can I just eat in my room this once?”

She frowned at him for a moment before asking, “What happened?”

Figuring he might as well just out with it, he said, “Jonathan was in a car crash last night, and now he’s in the hospital. His brother is missing. Tommy’s being a jerk about the whole thing, and–” Steve hung his head with shame. “I got kicked out of basketball practice. Sorry.”

“That… is quite the day,” Harriet said. She turned off the stove, set down her glass of wine, and put her arms around Steve. He let himself sink into the hug, taking comfort in it while he could. 

Then Harriet had to go and ruin it by saying, “Will Jonathan be unable to tutor you next Saturday?”

“Jesus, Mom,” Steve said, stepping back from her. “He’s in the hospital with a concussion and a broken arm, and all you can think about is his job? Did you miss the part where I said his brother is missing? No one has seen the kid since the crash. There are search parties out there right now–”

Steve suddenly knew what he had to do. “I’m going to join them.” He grabbed an apple from the bowl on the counter and left the kitchen, ignoring the way his mom called after him. 

He put on a few more layers, and then his good boots and his winter coat. It was cold out today, and Steve wondered just how long Will might have left before he died of exposure. He was grabbing a flashlight and some new batteries from the garage when the door opened and Fred pulled his Porsche in. Steve left the garage through the open door behind the Porsche, pausing when Fred called after him, “Where are you going?”

“Search party,” was all Steve told him before giving him a sarcastic wave and getting into his own car. 

He figured the best place to start was probably the police headquarters, and he was right, finding a large group of people gathered around. The sun was just setting, the last of the daylight quickly vanishing as Steve joined the crowd.

The chief was saying, “...everybody to sign in with Flo. You’ll need to sign out again too before you go home. Please don’t forget. I don’t want to start searching the woods for you, only to find out later you were home safe in your footie pajamas! Got it?”

The crowd murmured its understanding, and suddenly there was a hand on his arm, and Nancy’s voice saying his name in that warm way that made him smile.


	7. Searching the woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Nancy help the party search for Will.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: off-screen suicide by gun mentioned

“Hey, Nancy!” Steve said, his eyes wide, then crinkled at the edges, like he was surprised, but pleased to see her. “What are you doing here? What about the hospital?”

Nancy rolled her eyes and gestured over in the crowd, where he could see Mike and some of his friends standing huddled together. “The kids came to interrogate Jonathan about what could have happened to Will. I convinced them to join the official search effort instead of going off alone, but Mom wouldn’t let Mike come help without me. Dustin volunteered to stay with Jonathan in my place. Apparently he’s not a ‘woodsman.’”

“Which one is Dustin?” Steve asked, sending a confused look over at Mike’s group of friends.

“Curly hair,” Nancy told him, tugging Steve over closer to the younger kids. “Talks too much.”

Steve nodded like he knew what she was talking about, but Nancy could tell he didn't. Not that he should. It wasn't like he had a little brother who had been friends with these kids for years. As they waited in line to sign the log book, Nancy started getting cold. She shivered a little and pulled her arms closer around herself, but then Steve said, “Hey, turn around.”

Nancy turned to face him and he put a knit hat on her head, tugging it down so it covered her ears. Grinning, she said, “Thanks.”

Steve grinned back and kissed her. “You’re welcome.”

One of Mike’s friends, the red headed girl, Nancy thought her name was Max, said, “Ooo-oo-ooh!” and Mike made a gagging noise.

“Shut up,” Nancy said, hitting her brother, but she couldn’t help the smile on her lips. 

Lucas asked, “So, are you guys boyfriend and girlfriend now, or what?”

“None of your business,” Nancy told him, ignoring another retching noise from Mike. Nodding ahead of them, she said, “It’s our turn to sign in.”

After signing in, they were told to get an assignment from Officer Powell. The officer in question took one look at them and muttered to himself before looking down at the map spread out on the card table in front of him. “Okay kids. Why don’t you go with the group that’s searching this area, over here?” 

He pointed to the Eastern edge of town, not too far from the Byers house. 

“Meet at Kerley and Oak,” he pointed at the map again. “The Chief is leading your group, so pay attention to him and follow instructions _exactly_. You got it?”

“Yeah,” Nancy said, giving the officer as friendly a smile as she could summon while also being talked down to. “We got it. Thanks!”

Steve asked her, “Where’d you park? Think we could all fit in one car?”

Looking around at Mike and his friends, Nancy said, “Yeah. We can all fit in mine, if you want.”

“Cool.”

As they were getting into the car, Mike stopped Nancy with a hand on her shoulder, asking, “What’s the deal? I thought you were dating Jonathan, but now there’s _this_ guy too?”

“His name is Steve,” Nancy said. “And don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.”

It certainly didn’t feel like nothing when she sat down in the driver’s seat and looked over at Steve. He smiled back at her, and it made Nancy’s heart flip-flop in her chest.

Half an hour later, she and Steve were walking through the woods, Mike, Lucas, and Max (that _was_ her name) a dozen yards to their right, the rest of the volunteers forming a line to their left. “I don’t know what to tell people about all this,” she told Steve, moving her flashlight across the forest floor as they walked forward. 

“What?” Steve asked, similarly engaged. “About Will going missing? I mean, it doesn’t seem that complicated.”

“No,” Nancy said, stepping closer to Steve and saying in a low voice, “about you and me and Jonathan. Mike’s already asking me about it, since he saw when Jonathan came over last night.”

“Oh, I never did find out about why he went over to yours. Was it something important?” Steve asked. 

“Something important for Will,” Nancy told him. “Jonathan and I just chatted for a few minutes.” Then Nancy remembered. “Oh, and we kissed a couple of times. Was that not okay?”

“It’s okay,” Steve said, but he looked a little pensive. Well, he did in the light coming from the moon and the glow of their flashlights. 

“What is it?”

Shaking his head, Steve asked, “What sort of important was it for Will? Would there be a reason he’d leave the car like that? Leave Jonathan alone and hurt? What could be _that_ important?”

Nancy knew she shouldn’t tell other people’s secrets, but suddenly it felt very relevant. She kept her voice low as she told Steve, “He told Mike that he’s gay. And that he has feelings for Mike, but Mike doesn’t feel the same way. Will left in a hurry after that.”

“Shit,” Steve muttered, stopping his forward progress. 

“What?” Nancy asked, looking down at the forest floor. “Did you find something?”

Steve shook his head. “I’m just thinking, the people in this town don’t really… Well, they think being gay is something you should be beat up over.” He sighed heavily. “Maybe Will was doing their job for them and…” He drew his finger across his neck. 

Nancy’s stomach plunged into her shoes. “No! He wouldn’t have done that. Especially not while Jonathan was hurt! Never!”

“Never? How can you know that it's _never_?” Steve asked. “You remember Sam Wilks? Our freshman year, he was a senior?”

Nancy took a sharp breath, the memory still painful, even though she hadn’t known him except in passing. “He shot himself with his father’s gun. On purpose.”

“It happens, is all I’m saying,” Steve told her. “I do think it’s more likely that he was confused, or...or running _away_ from something. Or maybe even grabbed by something.”

“Like what?” Nancy asked, starting her search back up again, hurrying a little to catch up with the rest of the line. 

Shaking his head, Steve told her, "I don't know. It's just something Jonathan said today that stuck with me. He said something ran out into the road in front of the car, but he can't remember if it was a person or something else."

Nancy didn't like the way Steve said "something else." It sounded sinister in a way that sent a chill down her spine. She shone her flashlight around, feeling desperate to chase away the darkness.

They walked for a few relatively silent minutes, occasionally calling out for Will and waiting to hear a response. Nancy was just about to call out again, when she heard rustling in the woods behind them, ground that they’d already covered. 

Whipping around, Nancy shone her flashlight in that direction. “Will?” The light from her flashlight flickered and went out for a second before coming back on.

Steve joined her, the beam of his flashlight joining hers on the patch of brush they’d gone around just seconds ago. “Will Byers?”

The bushes rustled, making Nancy’s breath catch in her throat. God, she hoped it was Will. Or a deer or something. She heard the moment Steve stopped breathing, and she was about to ask why, when she saw it too. 

It was tall, taller than anyone Nancy had ever met, and it had dark, grayish skin that shone a bit in the light from the flashlights and blended in with the tree it was hiding behind. The arm Nancy could see was horribly long, and then the figure was moving, turning away from them and slipping back into the darkness. The underbrush snapped once under what must have been its significant weight, but then Nancy lost track of it in the noise coming from the other searchers calling out for Will.

Taking a shaky breath, Nancy asked Steve, “What the hell was that?”

“It didn’t have a face,” Steve said, eyes still trained on where they had last seen it. It started raining, obscuring the view as their flashlights bounced off the raindrops, shining back at them. “It had a head, but no face. Where was its face?”

“Maybe it was a trick of the light,” Nancy said, realizing she was clutching tightly onto Steve’s arm. “It was big, wasn’t it?”

“Big, yeah,” Steve said. “Some sort of weird, hairless bear?”

Nancy let out the breath she’d been holding, relieved to have an explanation that made some sort of sense. “That has to be it, right?”

Looking over his shoulder, Steve said, “Shit. We should stick close to the others.”

“Yeah,” Nancy agreed, turning and hurrying back toward the line. She and Steve both looked over their shoulders every few seconds, but whatever that thing had been, it appeared to be gone. 

“Jesus Christ,” Steve muttered as they got close, and Nancy felt him shudder through the arm she was still holding onto. 

There was a little bit of a commotion over by Mike and his friends, so Nancy pulled Steve in that direction. She was about to ask if they’d found something, when she saw there was one too many heads in the group. Was it Will? 

Had they found him?

Nancy let go of Steve, hurrying the last few steps and shouldering Mike aside so she could see who the rest of them were surrounding. 

It wasn’t Will. 

Instead, it was a wide-eyed teenage girl, wearing a wet Benny’s Burgers t-shirt that was gigantic on her, and a pair of pants that looked like they might have been scrubs. Her hair was buzzed short and she was shivering, her teeth practically chattering with it.

“Who is this?”

Before any of the others could answer, Steve said, “Jesus, she must be freezing!” He handed Nancy his flashlight and took off his jacket, still wearing a Hawkins High hoodie underneath. He held the jacket out to the girl, saying, “Here, borrow mine.”

The girl shied back a bit, but Steve held out the jacket steadily until she took it. She wrapped it around herself more like a blanket than a coat, and when Nancy glanced down, she noticed the girl wasn’t wearing any shoes. 

Max asked her gently, “Where did you come from?”

“We should tell someone,” Steve said, turning toward the now-distant end of the search line. He raised his arm in a wave and opened his mouth to shout, but the girl spoke in a soft, but deadly serious tone. 

“No.”

Steve stopped, lowering his arm. “No?”

“You don’t want us calling for help?” Mike asked, and the girl shook her head, eyes locked with Mike’s. 

There was something about her that made Nancy want to shiver, too. 

“Did you run away from home?” Lucas asked her.

The girl met his eyes before looking down and giving half a shrug. 

“Oh, my god,” Max said. “If we tell the Chief about her he’s just going to make her go back.”

The girl’s eyes went wider and she shook her head vehemently. “No!”

“Well, whatever we do, we have to get her out of here,” Nancy said, looking back at the stand of trees where she and Steve had seen that … _thing_.

“Maybe she’s seen Will,” Mike suggested, which made Lucas and Max both perk up excitedly. 

“We’ll ask her about Will when we get somewhere warm and safe,” Nancy insisted. Addressing the girl, Nancy said, “Since you’re not wearing shoes, it’ll be faster if my friend Steve carries you. Would that be okay?”

The girl looked uneasy until Steve passed his flashlight to Nancy and turned his back to the girl before crouching down. “Piggy back ride?”

The girl looked around at the others before uneasily nodding. “Piggy-back,” she said carefully, like she was testing out the words. 

Nancy wondered if maybe she was Pennsylvania Dutch or Amish or something, and English was a second language. But why was her hair so short? And how did she get out in these woods with no shoes?

In any case, she climbed onto Steve’s back and they moved as a group back toward the cars. Nancy led them in a wide arc around the area of dense brush where the _thing_ had been, and told Mike and Lucas, “Keep watch behind us. There might be someone following her.”

Honestly, Nancy thought that was a long shot. Mostly she was afraid that weird bear or whatever it was would sneak up behind them and pick off the straggler, which at this point was her brother. 

“Keep up, Michael,” Nancy hissed back at him, not wanting another little brother to go missing in these woods. 

“I’m _trying_ ,” Mike replied, moving up closer to Lucas and Max. 

Halfway back, Nancy asked Steve, “How are you doing? Do you need to take a break?”

“My fingers are freezing,” he said, readjusting the girl’s weight on his back. “Let’s just get out of here.”

“Okay.”

They made it back to the car okay, and Nancy was about to drive home when she realized two things. One, if they didn’t sign back in at the police station, that would draw the chief’s attention, and that would hurt their chances of keeping the girl a secret. And second, Steve’s car was also at the precinct. He would need it back at some point. 

As they approached the car, Nancy opened the back hatch, moving the emergency blanket her father insisted on keeping there (“in case of getting stuck in the snow”) and gestured the girl in. “Stay low and cover yourself with this,” Nancy told her, handing the girl the blanket. “We’ll take you to our house.”

“Mom never goes in the basement,” Mike said, and Nancy had to admit it was a good point. “We can hide her down there.”

“Yeah, sure. Good,” Nancy said, giving the woods one last, searching look before closing the back hatch. 

~*~

Jonathan had been asleep for a while, his casted arm propped up on a stack of pillows, when the pain worsened and woke him up. The clock on the wall said it was one in the morning. The lights in the room were dim, but not all the way off, and Jonathan was surprised to see someone sitting in the chair next to his bed. 

Steve had his upper half laying on Jonathan’s mattress, head pillowed on his arms. That familiar head of hair made Jonathan smile. Steve must have come back after driving Dustin home, coming in after Jonathan had fallen asleep.

Not wanting to wake him, Jonathan shifted slowly, finding a position that was a little more comfortable and trying to fall back asleep. He tried, but the pain was getting worse, his arm throbbing in the cast. He wiggled his fingers like the doctor had said to do often, but that didn’t help the pain, just eased some of the stiffness. If he was at home, in his own bed, he’d be sleeping on his stomach. That wasn’t exactly an option with the cast.

After twenty minutes of trying to fall back asleep and failing, Jonathan gave in and hit the nurse call button. It took a while, but eventually someone came in with a quiet knock.

The nurse was an older woman with dark skin and graying hair, her wrinkles looked like laugh-lines, which, along with the soft look she gave Jonathan, made her look good natured and kind. “How are you doing, Jonathan?”

Before he could answer, she noticed Steve, who stirred a bit, but didn’t wake up. 

“Visiting hours are over,” she said in a quiet voice, before giving a dismissive wave and saying, “but I’ve heard about the situation with your brother. Your mother is still waiting for news at home?”

“Yeah,” Jonathan told her. “She can’t be there and here at the same time.”

“Of course not. Your friend can stay.” The nurse gave Jonathan’s leg a friendly pat. As she turned more toward him, he saw that her name badge said Leanne. “What can I do for you?”

Hating to be a bother, but knowing he needed sleep if he was going to get out of here and help find Will, Jonathan told her, “My arm really hurts. It’s keeping me from sleeping.”

“I can give you some pain meds,” she told him, taking his chart from the foot of his bed and reading through it. “Your doctor has you on Percocet, which should help you sleep. I think he’ll probably switch you to regular ibuprofen in the morning, which I agree would be appropriate. How does that sound?”

Not really understanding the difference, Jonathan said, “Yeah, sure. Okay.”

“Great. I’ll be back in a minute.”

After Leanne left, Steve stirred, turning his head and blinking up at Jonathan. “I thought for sure she was gonna kick me out.”

“Me too,” Jonathan said, putting his good hand over Steve’s on the bed. “Are your parents going to worry?”

Steve shrugged. “They probably wouldn’t notice if I stopped coming home. Maybe if the school called them or something.”

Jonathan breathed through the pain in his arm for a moment, before curiosity got the better of him. He asked, “What about if they found out you were here? What would they do?”

With a sigh, Steve shrugged again, “I honestly have no idea.”

Jonathan looked at Steve and tried to imagine what it was like for him, having two parents who both didn’t care about him. They cared enough to hire him a tutor, but Jonathan got the feeling it was more so that Steve wouldn’t embarrass them, than because they valued his education. Jonathan thought it might be a little like having two Lonnies as parents. Jesus, how could anyone live in the same house as Steve and not _see_ him, not care about him? The thought made Jonathan angry. And sick. His eyes watered and he had to run them and sniffle to clear them away.

Then he noticed Steve giving him the oddest look. 

“What?” Jonathan asked, a bit too bluntly. 

Pouting a bit, Steve asked, “Are you crying about _my_ parents?”

Sniffling again, Jonathan nodded at his cast and said, “My arm hurts.”

The grin Steve gave him made Jonathan want to grab him by the collar and kiss him until he stopped looking so smug. But then Steve stood up and stepped closer. He cupped Jonathan’s face in his hands and, still smiling, kissed Jonathan’s right eyelid, and then his left. It made a tear escape Jonathan’s right eye, and Steve brushed it away with his thumb. “I’d kiss your arm better, too, but there’s a cast in the way.”

Jonathan gave an amused scoff, his heart almost painfully full. Looking up at Steve, Jonathan folded his good hand around Steve’s wrist. He opened his mouth to thank Steve for being there, but before he could, the nurse came back with his meds. It would have to wait.

~*~

In the morning, Steve called the school from the hospital, excusing himself out sick. He kind of loved that he could do that now that he was eighteen. It hadn’t given him too many other privileges. Sure, he could buy cigarettes himself if he wanted to, but the last time he’d smoked, Jonathan had complained about the taste. Steve hadn’t ever smoked much, so it wasn’t a big deal to give them up. Especially since it meant making out with Jonathan more often. 

First thing, before Jonathan was even discharged, Steve drove to Jonathan’s house to get him some clean clothes, and when Joyce let him in, Steve noticed what a shambles the house was in. Not that it was ever pristine, like how his parents paid to have their house kept, but it was usually neater than this. With everything going on, Steve could really understand everything else falling to the wayside. 

“Steve!” Joyce said, ushering him inside in an almost manic way. “Jonathan told me you were staying with him at the hospital. He tells me he's okay, but is he okay? Really?"

His intuition told him that this was one of those situations where a lie did more good than the truth. "He's fine," Steve insisted, giving her an encouraging nod. "You let me worry about Jonathan, okay? I'm bringing him home in a few hours. You focus on Will."

Joyce bit her lips and looked away as she nodded. Her eyes lit on the kitchen phone, and he supposed she'd been waiting for the call all night. Either a call that they'd found Will alive, or that they'd found his body. Steve shivered and headed into the house, toward Jonathan's bedroom. Over the course of the last few months, Steve had only been to the house a few times, mostly late at night. They usually studied at Steve's house, because it was more likely to be empty. 

Still, Steve had no problem finding some clean clothes for Jonathan. He carefully emptied Jonathan's bag, putting his books on the nightstand. Hadn't there been a lamp on this nightstand before? Whatever. It wasn't relevant to Steve's current mission, so he put the question out of his mind. He packed up the clothes, going through them to make sure he had everything, including a couple different options. Hmm, there weren't any shoes. The blood-stained ones Jonathan had been wearing during the crash would have to do. Unless…

Going out into the hallway, Steve called, "Mrs. Byers? Does Jonathan have another pair of shoes somewhere?"

"Um...I don't think so," she said, her voice coming from a room to Steve's left, further down the hallway. 

He went down there, thinking he'd ask if there wasn't at least a pair of dress shoes he could bring. He found her sitting on what had to be Will's bed, given the pattern on the sheets. There were about fifteen lamps arranged in a semicircle around her. As eloquent as always, he said, "Uh…" 

"Shh," Joyce said. "I'm listening."

Honestly afraid to ask what she was listening _for_ , Steve muttered, "Okay," and left. Maybe Jonathan would know how to handle his mother having gone around the bend.

He got back to the hospital quickly, letting himself into Jonathan’s room. The bed was empty, and Steve was about to have a fit and go demand from the nurses that they tell him where they’d taken Jonathan. But then the toilet flushed in the bathroom attached to the hospital room and Steve sheepishly abandoned his quest to locate Jonathan. 

Instead he unpacked clothes from the bag, laying them out so Jonathan could pick out what he wanted to wear. Not that it mattered too much. Doctor's orders were to take it easy today and watch out for a few symptoms that might call for a trip back to the hospital. Steve knew he wasn't remembering all of them, his concentration wrecked by having slept only a few hours, upright in the chair next to Jonathan's bed. Maybe he could get one of the nurses to write them down for him.

Jonathan came out of the bathroom, rolling the shoulder of his casted arm, like it was bothering him. Looking over the clothes Steve had laid out for him, he said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Steve said with a smile, pulling the curtain around his bed so there was more privacy than just the closed room door. He stole a quick kiss before asking, "What do you want to wear?"

As Jonathan picked out a few things, Steve asked him, "Do you want some privacy? To get dressed?"

Shaking his head, Jonathan said, "No. You can stay." As he reached for the ties on the back of his hospital gown, he groaned with frustration before asking, "Can you…?"

"Sure," Steve said, stepping behind Jonathan and undoing the ties. He kissed Jonathan's shoulder as the gown slid down, wrapping his arms around Jonathan and holding him. "When the cop told us there'd been a crash, I was so scared."

"I'm okay," Jonathan assured him, pulling away just enough to grab a t-shirt. He put his casted arm through one of the sleeves first, but struggled getting it the rest of the way on. 

Steve stepped in and helped him, laughing a little and saying, "You know, usually I'm trying to get you _out_ of your clothes."

Jonathan gave a little laugh, stealing another kiss before reaching for his pants. He turned and sat on the bed before trying to put them on, but his cast had him struggling again. 

"Sorry. Should've gone for the looser ones," Steve said, crouching down to help Jonathan get his feet through the pant legs. "I _might_ have been thinking about the way your butt looks in these ones."

Jonathan laughed again and shook his head. "You're a menace."

Steve stood up as he got Jonathan's pants all the way up, helping him wriggle himself into them. And yeah, maybe he did cop a little feel as he pulled up the zipper and did the buttons, but Joanthan wasn't complaining. In fact…

"That sucks that you broke your right arm," Steve said, putting his hands on Jonathan's hips and standing as close as possible, ducking just a little to put his lips close to Jonathan's again. "You might need some extra help with a lot of things."

"Is that you offering to write all my homework for me?" Jonathan asked, the edges of his eyes crinkled up a little with a smile.

Before Steve could explain that he meant he could help Jonathan jerk off whenever he wanted, the room door opened and Jonathan stepped away from him. With his left arm, Jonathan opened the curtain, greeting the daytime nurse and answering her questions. She did give Jonathan a piece of paper with some symptoms listed and a phone number to call. Steve looked at it over Jonathan's shoulder. If the nurse wasn't there, Steve would have taken it from Jonathan and declared himself in charge of calling, should the need arise. As it was, he didn't want to seem overly familiar, like anything other than a friend.

Just over half an hour later, all the papers had been signed, Jonathan's shoes and other personal items had been turned back over to them, and Steve was driving Jonathan home. They were almost to the house when Steve remembered what he'd witnessed earlier.

"Hey," he said, trying to broach the topic carefully. "Does your mom usually react to stress by…" God, he didn't even know how to describe what he'd witnessed. "Well, does she get a little funny?"

"Funny how?" Jonathan asked, narrowing his eyes at Steve. 

Wincing, Steve said, "Well, maybe you should just see for yourself. And, like, no judgement from me. I get that you guys are going through hell."

Jonathan was still giving Steve a weird look when he parked in front of the house. "Come on, Evel Knievel. Let's get you inside."

"I wasn't stunt driving," Jonathan insisted, opening his own door and getting out on his feet without help. Steve knew that Jonathan was in okay shape, that it was his arm and his head that had taken the majority of the damage, but seeing the side of his face all bruised made Steve feel like he should be helping more than Jonathan was letting him. "Some asshole ran out in front of my car."

Remembering what Jonathan had mentioned the day before, Steve said, "I've been meaning to ask you what the person looked like. Maybe we can get your insurance company to sue them or something."

Jonathan scoffed and led the way toward the house. "Yeah, I don't have insurance."

" _What_?" Steve asked, completely baffled by the idea. His dad hadn't even let him touch the BMW he got for his 16th birthday until he called the insurance office and got a policy on the books.

Jonathan rolled his eyes. "And I'm not even sure it _was_ a person. It was… too big or something. I don't know. Maybe it was a trick of the light."

The description caught Steve off guard. His stomach sinking, he asked Jonathan, “What color was it?”

Frowning at Steve, Jonathan stopped walking just short of the porch. “What _color_ was it? Why?”

“Just…” Steve sighed, still not sure he and Nancy had actually seen something the night before. “Please? Do you remember?”

Jonathan gave a huff, but he closed his eyes, brows furrowed. After a moment, he made a flippant gesture with his hand and said, “I don’t know. Gray, maybe?”

Steve shuddered. “Fuck.” He sat down hard on the porch, shoving his hands into his hair. If Jonathan had seen it, and Nancy had seen it, that meant it wasn’t a figment of Steve’s imagination. It was _real_.

“What’s happening?” Jonathan asked, sitting on the porch next to Steve. “What’s going on?”

It took Steve a moment to figure out how to say this out loud. "When we went out to the woods last night," he started, before tripping over his words. "I… I mean, Nancy… We _both_ saw-- Well, it was _something_."

His voice soft, Jonathan leaned his shoulder against Steve's and asked, "What was it?"

Steve shook his head. "It was gray. And really tall. It's arms were--"

"Too long?" Jonathan asked, and Steve got the impression that Jonathan knew what he was talking about.

"Yeah," Steve said, his breath coming out in a rush.

His brow furrowed, Jonathan said, “But it can’t be… I mean, it’s not like monsters are real. Not outside of movies.”

“It’s just…” Steve looked over at Jonathan. “Why would Will have gotten out of the car? Why would he have left you there alone?”

Jonathan shoved his good hand into his hair and sighed. “If he couldn’t wake me up, he would have gone to go get help.”

“You were right off the road, half a mile from home. How could he have gotten lost? He bikes that road all the time, doesn’t he?”

Jonathan bit his lip and nodded. “Unless he didn’t get lost. Unless something… _got_ him.” The way Jonathan’s face crumpled into grief had Steve reaching for him half a second later. He held Jonathan close while he cried, rocking them a little bit, as if that would help. 

A sudden noise behind them put Steve’s heart up in his throat, and startled an undignified noise out of him. Looking back, it was just Mrs. Byers, who was standing in the doorway.

“He’s talking to me,” she said, and Steve turned to Jonathan to see how he wanted to play this. Maybe his mom went crazy like this a couple times a year. Steve didn’t know. Like, he’d heard _rumors_ that something had happened and Mr. Byers had to leave because Joyce was too crazy. He’d always thought it was bullshit up until now.

Jonathan sighed and got up, his good hand heavy on Steve’s shoulder for leverage. In a weary voice, Jonathan asked, “Who’s talking to you, Mom?”

“Will,” she said, and okay. Maybe she really was crazy. “He’s talking to me through the lights.” She turned and went back into the house, Jonathan following her, and Steve following Jonathan. 

They went back to Will’s room, and Steve thought there might have been even more lamps in here than before. “Okay, baby,” Mrs. Byers said, pulling Jonathan close. “Do it again, Will!”

“Mom,” Jonathan said, and Steve hated how weary he sounded. “Mom, you’re not talking to Will through the lights. He’s out in the woods somewhere.”

One of the lamps shone dimly for a second, before going off again. Mrs. Byers’ eyes lit up and she pointed to it. “See? See! He’s talking to me. I _know_ it!”

“Mom!” Jonathan all but shouted, getting her attention. “It’s just the electricity. It was out the night before last, too. The street lamps were all out.”

“No!” Mrs. Byers snapped. “No, it’s him. I can feel him. He’s close, Jonathan. He’s so close!”

With a deep sigh, Jonathan asked her, “When was the last time you slept?”

The familiar and blasé way Jonathan approached the question made Steve think it was one he was used to asking. Hell, it was one he had probably asked so often, he was _tired_ of asking. Like how Steve’s mother asked about his grades, like she expected him to disappoint her, but felt she had to ask anyway.

Steve didn’t want to know what his mother might think about Steve being here, witnessing Joyce Byers’ mental breakdown, intent on taking care of his boyfriend, who he was gay in love with. She might just have a heart attack and die on the spot of shame. 

A little piece of Steve kind of hoped she would. 

Not that his dad would be any better. He wouldn’t shame Steve. No, he’d do to Steve what he did to his younger brother, Steve’s Uncle Eric. He’d cut Steve off from the family money and make sure he was blacklisted from working anywhere east of the Mississippi. Steve had heard about that at his cousin’s wedding, but he still hadn’t figured out what Eric had done to deserve it. Maybe nothing. Maybe he’d just fallen in love with the wrong sort of person.

Joyce responded to Jonathan, “I-I don’t know. The night before last, I think. I–” She turned to Jonathan with tears in her eyes. “I didn’t wait up for you. I went to bed early, because I was going to open in the morning. I didn’t… I should have realized you hadn’t made it home sooner!” She wrapped her arms around Jonathan and sobbed. 

Suddenly feeling like he was seeing more than either of them might want him to, Steve went to the kitchen. Wanting to feel productive, and like he was helping, not just getting in the way, Steve started cleaning up. If he could get the mess under control, everyone would feel better. Right?


	8. The Portal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nancy stages a rescue mission after her brother and his friends return to the woods.

Nancy wanted to call the hospital between when she woke up and when she had to go to school, but her mother was being even more eagle-eyed than usual. Or maybe that was just Nancy’s nerves over the runaway stashed in their basement. The night before, they'd gotten the girl into some of Nancy's clean pajamas before setting her up with cushions and sleeping bags hidden behind one of the couches in the basement. It probably would have been more comfortable for her to sleep on the couch, but it also would have been a lot more likely to draw their mother's attention.

After getting dressed and ready for the day, Nancy put some clean daytime clothes at the bottom of her hamper, covering them with the sheets and pillowcases from her bed before hurrying them down to the basement. She found Mike there, crouched next to the under-the-table fort, looking up at her with wide eyes before he visibly relaxed. Nancy whispered, "It's just me," and closed the door at the top of the staircase. 

The girl looked a little better than she had the night before. Warmer and less wet, anyway. Nancy took her bedsheets out of the hamper and pulled the clothes out from underneath them, giving them to the girl. Then she took the sheets over to the washing machine and stuffed them in, adding soap and starting the washer. If her mother asked, Nancy could just say she didn't want them to stain, and that would stop any questions why she was down in the basement at that time of the morning. 

When she got back to Mike and the girl, Mike said to Nancy, "I'm going to tell Mom I'm sick, so I can stay here with El."

"El?" Nancy asked, before realizing he meant the girl. "That's your name?"

She nodded, her eyes just as big and wide as they had been the night before.

Nancy nodded back. Someone should stay with her, and if Mike was willing to, Nancy figured she'd let him. "I'll tell Mom I heard you coughing," she said, before pulling him away from the girl so she could whisper to him without her hearing. "Do you really think she knows what happened to Will?"

"I don't know," he said with a sigh. "Maybe. I don't know…"

He sounded more depressed than usual, so Nancy asked him, "Are you okay?"

Shrugging and shaking his head, he said, "No. I just… I just keep thinking that it's my fault Jonathan and Will were on the road just then. There's all this stuff that I thought to say to him after he left, and I--" He took a folded-up piece of lined paper out of his jacket pocket. "I wrote it all down. I was going to give it to him at school yesterday morning, but now?" Mike's chin wobbled. "Now I might not _ever_ get to tell him, and he'll have died thinking I hate him!"

Nancy pulled her brother into a tight hug, and even though she couldn't quite believe it herself, she insisted to him, "We're going to find him, okay? We are. We'll go looking again tonight."

Mike nodded against her shoulder. 

A moment later, Karen called out, "Nancy! Mike! It's time to leave for school! Where are you?"

Giving her brother one more encouraging nod, Nancy ran up the stairs, closing the door again behind her. She grabbed her bag from the floor at the foot of the stairs and her coat from the closet, stepping into her shoes. Then she went to the kitchen, finding her mom and telling her, "I heard Mike coughing all night, and he said he's sick, so I'm leaving without him. Bye."

"Nancy, wait! What--"

"Bye!" she called, not wanting to be questioned even further. Nancy knew she could keep a straight face fairly well, but pit against her mother on even terms? Retreat was the better part of valor in that instance.

The drive to school was normal, boring, and she remembered halfway there that she had been planning on calling Jonathan. Shit. 

Maybe she'd go over to his house after school. To check in on him. She knew Steve was going to be taking care of him, and Nancy got it. They were together, and had been for awhile. Still, Nancy couldn't help but feel like she wanted to be there too. She cared about Jonathan and Steve. She wanted to help, if they'd let her.

Oh, god. What if they didn't let her? What if this was too big and too complicated and they didn't want to deal with her being there too? Biting her lips together as she pulled into the school parking lot, Nancy told herself to start anticipating the rejection. If she saw it coming and steeled herself against it, surely it wouldn't hurt so bad when it finally came to pass.

She was still in a rough mood when Barb found her at her locker. “Hey.”

“Hi,” Nancy said, noting the strange expression on Barb’s face. “What is it?”

“Do you know what the hell is going on?” Barb asked, hugging her books tighter to her chest. 

Wait, how much did Barb know? She obviously knew about the crash and Will going missing. Had someone else seen El? Did others know about her? “What do you mean?”

“My dad got a call this morning. It was Mr. Coleman, from church. He said Benny was found shot early this morning.”

“Benny?” Nancy asked, drawing a blank. She narrowed her eyes at Barb and shook her head. 

Before Nancy could ask who Barb was talking about, she explained, “Benny Hammond, from Benny’s Burgers?”

“Oh!” Nancy said, putting her hand over her mouth in shock. Benny’s burgers was a Hawkins institution. Everyone ate there, at least on occasion. It was kind of on the edge of town, but the food was so good, people didn’t mind the drive. “He was found shot? What happened?”

Shaking her head, Barb said, “Mr. Coleman wasn’t sure. He heard it could have been suicide, but the police aren’t ready to say so yet.”

“Jesus,” Nancy said, suddenly remembering that the restaurant was really close to where they’d been searching for Will the night before. And–

And El had been wearing a Benny’s Burgers t-shirt when they found her! She’d been there. 

Did she kill Benny? 

No, that didn’t make any sense. Benny was a kind man, always willing to feed people, even when they couldn’t pay. Nancy couldn’t imagine scared, shivering little El hurting a nice man like Benny. 

But if she’d _seen_ him get shot, that would have explained why she was scared and running barefoot through the forest. 

“I don’t,” Nancy told Barb, pulling out her books for first period. “I don’t have any idea what the hell is going on around here lately.”

It was only a little bit of a lie. Nancy did know some things. But the list of things she knew was much, much shorter than the list of questions she still had.

~*~

Jonathan napped most of the day, exhausted from spending the last two nights away from his bed. Steve left for a little bit, and when he came back, he urged Jonathan out of bed and to the kitchen table for lunch. Looking around as Steve put a plate with a sandwich and some carrot sticks down in front of him, Jonathan asked, “Where’s my mom?”

Steve shrugged. “She went somewhere. Said she’d be back soon.” He sat down across from Jonathan, his own plate in front of him. “How are you feeling?”

Physically, Jonathan could tell he was feeling a lot better than he had even just that morning. But otherwise? “Will’s missing,” Jonathan said. “And I can’t help but think…” he looked down the hallway, toward Will’s room. “What if Mom _is_ talking to him, but he’s already a–a _ghost_ or something?”

“Come on,” Steve said, speaking through a mouthful of food. “A _ghost_? He can’t be a ghost, because we’re gonna find him.”

“Yeah,” Jonathan said, though he could admit to himself that the chances of finding Will got smaller and smaller with every second he was gone. 

As he got better, the urge to badger Steve into doing his school work got stronger and stronger. He decided to go about it in an indirect way, saying, “Hey, I need to finish reading _Brave New World_. Would you read it to me?”

Steve groaned, but ultimately he said, “Yeah, okay. I guess.” He narrowed his eyes and pointed at Jonathan, saying, “You’re lucky you’ve got a broken arm.”

“Oh, yeah,” Jonathan said, lifting his heavy cast a few inches off the couch. “So lucky…”

“Shut up,” Steve said, but he dug the book out of Jonathan’s bag and sat next to him on the couch. “Where do you want to start?”

Jonathan pointed to the scrap of paper he was using as a bookmark. “Right there would be good.”

“‘Kay.”

~*~

Steve was eating the last of the mac and cheese that he had made from a box for him and Jonathan to eat for dinner after basketball practice Tuesday night, when Nancy knocked on the front door once before barging in. Her eyes were wide, and the fright there made Steve stand up, his chair squeaking against the floor as he pushed it back. "What happened?"

"I just found out," she said, closing the door behind her. "Mike and his friends are bringing El back into the woods. The _woods_."

Remembering the thing he and Nancy had seen there, Steve said, "Oh, shit!"

"We can't let them be out there by themselves," she insisted. "They're biking. We might be able to catch up with them if we hurry."

"Shit, shit, shit," Steve said, going over to where he'd left his shoes by the door and shoving his feet into them. 

Jonathan came out of the bathroom then, asking, "Is this about that… that _thing_?"

Steve nodded. "Yeah." He grabbed his coat and started putting it on.

"There's a shotgun in the back shed," he told them, starting to put his shoes on. 

"Good idea," Steve told him. "You gonna find it for us?"

Shaking his head, Jonathan stood up. He grabbed the sling the hospital had sent him home with and started putting it on as he said, "That thing took my brother. I'm coming with you guys."

"Jesus Christ," Nancy said, shaking her head, but she didn't try to argue Jonathan out of it.

She must have known just as well as Steve did that there was nothing they could possibly say to get Jonathan to stay here while they went out to the woods. 

What she did do was hurry past them and out the back door. Steve would have followed her, but Jonathan was having trouble with his sling. Steve helped him with it, and then helped Jonathan get his coat onto his good arm and over his right shoulder. By the time they had finished, Nancy was already back in the house. She had a long gun in one hand, a bat in the other, and a small box that Steve assumed were bullets for the gun under her arm. Somehow, she was also carrying two flashlights under her other arm.

"Let's go," she said, a look of scary determination on her face as she handed the bat and one of the flashlights to Steve.

Steve gave Jonathan a look, and he shrugged in response, following Nancy out the door. Steve wondered if he had a thing for people who had a major disregard for their own safety. He figured he _had_ to go with them, if only to keep them from getting themselves into trouble. If they were going to be in danger from that tall, faceless figure in the woods, Steve wanted to put himself between them and it.

Whatever that meant for his own safety in turn.

After checking that the flashlight did work, he pulled the front door of the Byers house closed behind him, and when he saw Nancy heading for her mom's station wagon, Steve called out, "I'm driving."

Turning around, Nancy asked him, "Why?"

"Because I don't have a brother in danger," Steve told her. "I’m not as distracted. We really don't need any of us to get in another accident."

Nancy clenched her jaw and looked at Steve, like she was trying to stare him down and get him to change his mind. Steve stood steady, looking back at her. After a moment, he asked, "Do you want to be stubborn about this, or do you want to go find your brother?"

She blinked a couple times before saying, "Okay, _fine_. Let's go."

Steve hurried over to his car, unlocking it and getting into the driver's seat. He had the engine going by the time Nancy and Jonathan got in. 

Nancy ended up in the back seat with the gun, which Steve figured was for the best. As he backed out of the gravel parking area and onto the dirt road that headed back to town, Steve asked her, "Do you know what you're doing with that? I don't need to be shot on accident."

"It's not loaded," Nancy told him, her tone sharp. "And it's pointed at the floor. I'm not an idiot."

"I never said you were!" Steve insisted, shifting into drive and taking off down the road. "Just… be careful."

"I'm _being_ \--"

"Guys," Jonathan said, turning to look back at Nancy from the passenger seat. "Arguing isn't going to help anything."

Steve knew Jonathan was right, but it still stung, that Nancy thought he had such a low opinion of her. Couldn't she tell at this point how much he liked her? He was just… Guns freaked him out a little. It probably didn't help that he had no idea how to use one, and maybe he was assuming that Nancy didn't either, given that her parents didn't seem the type to sully their hands by going hunting or anything. Just like his own parents.

Jonathan's dad, on the other hand. From what he'd heard around town and the little Jonathan had told him about Lonnie Byers, he seemed exactly the type to be into hunting and guns and all that stuff. 

Steve sighed and said, "Sorry," keeping his eyes on the road. When he didn't have to accelerate, he kept his foot hovering over the break, ready to stop if something faceless ran out in front of the car. Hell, if it was the thing that had made Jonathan break his arm and Will go missing, maybe he should just accelerate right into it. Run it over. Whatever _it_ was.

"Yeah, sorry," Nancy said from the back seat. She didn't exactly sound sorry, but for how stubborn she seemed, Steve figured that was as good as he was going to get.

Refocusing on the task at hand, Steve asked Nancy, "So, what part of the woods are we going to?"

"It's not far," Nancy told them. "Take a right up here. It's pretty close to where we were searching last night."

Nodding, Steve turned right onto the main road. "How did you find out they were going?"

"I caught them sneaking out," she told Steve. "They got on their bikes and took the path along the power lines, where I couldn't follow with the car. Assholes."

Steve couldn't help but smile at that filthy word coming out of such a pretty face. Honestly, it made him like her more. He didn't get how she could call her brother that, but then again, Steve didn't have any brothers. The closest thing to a brother he had was his cousin, Craig, who was ten years older than him and rarely came to family functions anymore. 

Not that there were that many family functions to attend now that their grandparents had passed, but Steve had long since come to the conclusion that he just didn't have much of a family. Not like other people appeared to have. He glanced over at Jonathan, thinking about how close he was to his mom and his brother, and wondering if maybe, someday, he could be included in that circle of people. It would be nice.

Steve took another turn and after half a mile, spotted a pile of bikes near the side of the road. "There," he said, pulling over onto the shoulder. He put the car into park and killed the engine, saying, "Hopefully they left a trail we can follow.”

"No kidding," Jonathan said, getting out of the car.

Steve followed Nancy and Jonathan, the bat up on his shoulder. Taking a few longer strides to put himself beside Jonathan, he asked, "You want this flashlight?"

"Why?" Jonathan asked him. Jesus, what was with people being suspicious all of a sudden?

Steve nudged his shoulder against Jonathan's and said, "If any of us is going to trip out here in the dark, it shouldn't be you. What if you broke your other arm?"

Jonathan held out his good hand, so Steve put the flashlight into it. As they continued walking side-by-side, following Nancy into the woods, Jonathan murmured to Steve, "If I had two broken arms, would you still take care of me?"

"'Course I would, babe," Steve said, shifting his bat to the other side and putting his right arm around Jonathan's shoulders. 

Jonathan smiled and leaned against him for a few steps. As they reached the end of the grassy embankment and entered the woods, it became harder to keep his arm around Jonathan's shoulder and walk through the dark, uneven terrain. He took his arm down, but stayed close to Jonathan, ready to steady him by his good arm if he needed it. 

So far, Nancy had been silent ahead of them, and Steve wondered where her head was at. Was she just worried about her brother? Was she still mad at him for being practical and not as gung-ho to go out into these woods again as she was? Steve found that thought more uncomfortable than he thought he would. He had Jonathan, which should mean he didn't _need_ Nancy, right?

It didn't feel that way. It felt like Steve wanted to do anything he could think of to make Nancy less mad at him, to make her smile at him and let him kiss her some more. He hadn't felt this desperate for a girl since he was a freshman and had a crush on Laurie Miller. No, come to think of it, Steve felt even _more_ desperate for Nancy.

Did he want her because he had feelings for her, or did he want her because being _just_ with Jonathan felt too gay? Like if he had a relationship with Nancy, he could point to it and say, "See? See! I still like girls!"

Not that it would matter too much a year from now. Nancy would be off to college somewhere and Steve would be wherever Jonathan wanted to go. That thought made Steve stumble a little bit. He caught himself and answered Jonathan's questioning murmur by saying, "No, I'm good. I'm good."

Steve had never consciously had the thought before, but he realized it had been in the back of his head for a while. Whatever Jonathan wanted to do after graduation, wherever he wanted to go, Steve wanted to follow. 

Yeah, that was pretty fucking gay. Maybe it was time to make peace with that thought. Maybe it was time to let the dream of Nancy Wheeler go and realize that this thing he had with Jonathan? He was _in it_. Like, for good. 

Ahead of them, Nancy stopped and cocked her head to the side.

"What is it?" Jonathan asked in a low voice. 

Nancy replied, "I hear something," and waved them forward.

After a few steps, they stopped again, and once the crunches of the dry leaves under their feet faded away, Steve heard it too. It was a soft, mewling, almost crying noise. Nancy turned in that direction and moved off the sort-of path they’d been following. Jonathan followed her, so Steve followed him, taking a moment to search what he could see of the trees behind them. 

The thought of that faceless thing sneaking up on them, attacking them from behind, _terrified_ Steve. He tightened his grip on the bat in his hands, ready to knock its fucking head off if he needed to.

“It’s been hit by a car,” Nancy murmured, and when Steve reached the others, he realized they were looking down on an injured and bloody deer. 

“Poor thing,” Jonathan said, wincing and turning his body like he wanted to look away, but couldn’t. Steve had to admit, it wasn’t a pretty sight. There was a large, bloody gash near its neck, and one of its legs was at a strange angle. 

Nancy looked over at them and said, “We can’t leave it like this.”

Steve had no idea what she wanted to do. It was a deer. He was pretty sure any vet they could take it to wouldn’t bother trying to save its life. Not when most of what Steve ever heard about deer was that they were overpopulated. 

Nancy raised the shotgun up, bracing it against her shoulder. 

“Wait, you’re gonna shoot it?” Steve asked, not sure if he was more scared or more impressed by Nancy’s attitude. 

“Yes,” she said, but there was a slight waver in her voice and Steve found himself bracing for a shot that didn’t come. 

“Here,” Jonathan said gently, taking the gun from Nancy and attempting to brace it against his left shoulder. He couldn’t steady the gun with his casted arm, and it slipped before he pulled the trigger. 

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Give it to me,” Steve muttered, handing Nancy the bat and taking the gun from Jonathan. He aimed it at the deer and got ready to shoot the deer, putting it out of its misery. 

Suddenly, something yanked the deer into the underbrush. 

Steve gasped with surprise and took half a step back, lowering the gun so it was pointed at the ground. “What the hell was _that_?”

Nancy ducked down, pointing her flashlight under the brush and through the trees. “There’s a blood trail.”

“Oh, okay,” Steve said, feeling completely out of his element. “So something has dinner. Let’s go find your brother.”

“What if this is _it_?” Nancy asked, heading around the brush, Jonathan right at her heels. “What if this is the thing we saw? What if it took Will the way it took that deer?”

“Jesus, Nancy,” Jonathan said, but he kept following her. “So, what? We’re trying to find what’s left of his body?”

That thought was too difficult to bear, so Steve pointed out, “Your mom thinks he’s still alive.”

“And _what_?” Jonathan asked with a disbelieving laugh, turning to face Steve. “He’s being held prisoner by some sort of animal–and–person snatching monster?”

“Maybe!” Steve reached for Jonathan, squeezing his shoulder. “Hey, we can’t give up hope, okay? Not yet.”

After a long moment, Jonathan nodded. He sighed and turned away from Steve, following where Nancy had gone around a group of trees. After a moment, he hissed quietly, “[Nancy? Nancy where’d you go?](https://twilight-byers.tumblr.com/post/616590628257677312/guys-wheres-nance-i-dont-see-her-nancy)”

Steve hurried forward, passing Jonathan and searching the dark woods for any sign of her. “Nancy?”

Steve heard the sound of feet rustling through the woods and he turned in that direction. A few long strides brought him to the top of a slope, and he saw not one figure, but several, most of them with flashlights. 

“Hey,” he called to them, vaguely recognizing Nancy’s brother in the lead of the group. “Hey, is Nancy with you?”

He looked back, making sure he still had eyes on Jonathan, which he realized with relief that he did.

“Steve?” Mike called out, changing the direction of the group. “What are you guys doing here?”

The weird new girl, El, gave Steve a hesitant sort of smile, so he nodded at her, but mostly he counted heads. 

“We’re looking for you guys,” Jonathan told them. “But we–”

Cutting himself off, Jonathan turned his head, then he was hurrying back the way they came, calling, “Nancy! Nancy, where are you?”

Fuck, he must have heard something. Steve hurried after him, calling over his shoulder to the kids, “Stick close. There’s something out here with us!”

“What do you mean, _something_?” One of the non-Mike kids asked. “What kind of something are you talking about?”

Watching as Jonathan kept calling out to Nancy, Steve told the kids, “The kind that’s eight feet tall with long-ass arms and no face.” Briefly, he noticed the new kid put a hand to her mouth, like the description had surprised her. Or, more like what surprised her was _Steve_ describing the thing. Hell, they’d found her out here the night before. Maybe she’d seen the damn thing, too. Maybe she knew what it was.

Steve kept the shotgun braced against his shoulder, but pointing at the ground as he called out, “Nancy! Nancy, where are you?”

“Nancy! Follow the sound of my voice,” Jonathan said, and Steve saw him abruptly change direction, like he’d heard something. _What_ he heard, Steve couldn’t tell, because the only voices he heard belonged to Jonathan and the kids, who had started fanning out, looking for their missing person. 

Steve followed Jonathan, who kneeled down and picked up the bat Nancy had been carrying. Then he shone his flashlight at the base of a large tree, illuminating it and muttering, “What the hell?”

There was something seriously wrong with the tree. There was a huge gash in the trunk near the base, and it was dripping with some sort of ooze. Jonathan crouched down and shouted _into_ the tree. “Nancy! Nancy, over here! Come on! Follow my voice!”

Steve crouched down next to Jonathan, asking him, “Can you hear her?”

“Yeah,” Jonathan said, giving Steve a funny look. “You can’t? She’s… She’s _right here_.”

Steve shook his head, but he trusted Jonathan, so he shouted into the tree too. “Nancy! Nancy, over here!”

He vaguely noticed some of the kids gathering behind them, watching as Jonathan called to Nancy again. 

Then something burst forth from the base of the tree, making Steve and Jonathan both jump back and land on their asses. Steve was still thanking his lucky stars that he hadn’t accidentally fired the gun in his hands, when Jonathan scrambled forward, grabbing at whatever was reaching out of the tree with his good hand. 

“It’s her!” Jonathan cried, the strain of pulling Nancy’s arm distorting his voice. 

Steve set the shotgun aside, jumping in to help Jonathan, grabbing Nancy’s arm, and then as she reached it out, the other one. “Shit, it’s closing,” Steve said, planting his feet and pulling as hard as he could. When he saw Nancy’s shoulders, he reached down, grabbing her by the armpits and pulling her out of the rapidly-closing gash in the tree. 

She came free with a gross squelching noise, and Steve fell back onto the forest floor, Nancy falling on top of him. “Shit, are you okay?” he asked, holding her close with one arm and using the other hand to push some slimy gunk off her face. “Nance?”

Her reply was more of a sob than anything else, and she curled against his chest, pressing her face into his neck. 

Sharing a concerned look with Jonathan, who had his good hand on Nancy’s back, Steve sat up. He held Nancy close with his left arm, despite how slimy she was from being _inside_ a fucking tree. With his right arm, he pulled Jonathan closer, needing to _know_ he was alright too.


	9. The Upside Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nancy discovers another world.

Nancy knew it wasn’t the smartest idea to follow what was obviously a predator through the woods at night, armed only with a flashlight and a baseball bat. But her curiosity got the better of her. She _had_ to know what this thing was. She _had_ to know if it was responsible for Will Byers’ disappearance. 

At some point she realized that Jonathan and Steve were arguing instead of following her, but she disregarded that fact, solely focused on the blood. She followed the trail until it ended at the base of a tree. Nancy almost looked up, thinking maybe it was a mountain lion or something else that could drag its prey up into the tree. 

But then she noticed that the base of the tree looked anything but normal. There was… well, it almost looked like a door, or a tunnel. Was there some sort of nest dug into the ground here? And what was the gooey slime around the tunnel entrance? 

Nancy had never heard of something like this before. 

She set aside the bat and held the flashlight in her left hand while she used her right hand to _push_ her way through the _membrane_ that stretched across the tunnel. It gave way and she crawled through it, only to find herself coming out the other side of the tree. 

Confused, Nancy rounded the tree, but there was no tunnel entrance on the other side. And also, her bat and the blood trail was gone. 

The air felt almost _colder_ than it had a moment ago, and it smelled strange. There were odd motes of _something_ floating through the air. 

A noise drew her attention, and Nancy saw, hunched over the deer carcass, something completely alien looking. It had dark, wet-looking skin, long legs, and even longer arms. Its head was buried in the deer, feeding on it. All her hair standing on end, Nancy knew instinctively that if it could eat a deer, it could eat _her_ too.

She backed away slowly, trying to stay absolutely quiet. Nancy was fine for a couple steps, but then as she shifted her weight again to her left foot, a branch below her shoe snapped. 

The monster's head whipped around and instead of a blank space where a face should be, it had a gaping maw surrounded by hundreds of teeth, dripping with dark liquid that had to be the deer's blood. 

Nancy screamed, dropped her flashlight, and started running without making the conscious decision to flee. 

Heavy footsteps followed her through the woods, and Nancy realized she had no idea where she was.

But then she heard it -- Jonathan's voice calling, "Nancy!"

Having lost track of the monster, and unsure of which direction to run, Nancy called out, "Jonathan! Jonathan, where are you?"

"Nancy!" he called again, and Nancy could hear him, but she couldn't quite see him. Then his voice got louder when he called out, "Nancy, over here! Follow the sound of my voice!"

Doubling back, Nancy hid behind a tree, holding her breath as she listened to the monster pass by her hiding place. Waiting until it had passed by far enough was tortuous, Jonathan's voice calling to her over and over again. Eventually, the monster seemed far enough away that she made a break for it.

Running at top speed, she followed the sound of Jonathan's voice and found the big tree with the hole in its trunk. God, it looked a lot smaller than she remembered, coming through it in the first place. She didn't have time to hesitate, though. The footsteps of the monster were getting closer again, and if it got to her, she'd be dead.

Nancy pushed her way into the hole, the slimy sides of it squeezing her shoulders and making it hard for her to breathe. She pushed past the pain and pushed through the membrane between her and Jonathan's flashlight. Jonathan grabbed her hand, but the tunnel closed in tighter, squeezing her shoulders and her hips, clinging onto her, trapping her!

Someone else pulled on her arm too, and it _hurt_ , like her arm was being pulled out of its socket, but the extra force pulled her forward, the edges of the tunnel scraping against her sides. As soon as her head passed the membrane, she took a deep breath of clean, cool air. Then, as Steve got a better grip on her, she pushed all the air out of her lungs, making herself as small as possible. 

He pulled her out with such force that he fell over, but Nancy didn't care. She was free. Her breath came in huge, gasping breaths, punctuated with sobs that squeezed her lungs again and made her throat ache. After some rearranging, she ended up in Steve's lap, both him and Jonathan wrapped around her. 

Mike dropped down next to them, carefully putting a hand on Nancy's shoulder and asking her, "Where did you go?"

Nancy bit her lips and shook her head. "I don't know. Somewhere _else_. I think it…" She turned to look at the tree, seeing the tunnel she'd come through was now gone. The tree looked whole, like it had never had a tunnel through it. How could that be possible?

"You think it, what?" Steve asked gently, rubbing at her temple like he was trying to clean something away.

Looking at him, and then over at Jonathan and Mike, Nancy said, "I think it _lives_ there."

"What does?" Mike asked. 

Nancy looked up at Mike's friends and met Eleven's eyes. There was something there, in the apologetic tilt of her eyebrows and the clench of her jaw. Nancy nodded to Eleven and said, "I think she knows."

The others all turned to Eleven, whose eyes went wide, her brows furrowing further in a heartbreaking expression. Shaking her head, she told the others, "It… is dangerous."

"Yeah, no shit," Nancy said, getting out of Steve's lap and standing up to face the girl, who was almost as tall as she was. “What is it? What did it do to Will?”

Tears in her eyes, Eleven turned away from Nancy, toward Mike. “Hunting him.”

“What’s hunting him?” Mike asked, sounding almost as frustrated with Eleven as Nancy felt. 

Instead of replying, Eleven pulled something out of her pocket and held it out to Mike. When Lucas shined his flashlight on it, Nancy saw that it was one of the miniatures for Mike’s D&D game. “That.”

“A _demogorgon_?” Mike asked, taking the miniature from her and looking at it. “A monster?”

Eleven shrugged her shoulders slightly before nodding. 

Taking the miniature from Mike’s hand, Nancy looked at it. “It doesn’t look like this. It has one head, not two. And it doesn’t have any eyes, but it can hear. Mostly it just…” Nancy felt tears welling up in her eyes again. She shuddered and gave the figure back to Mike. “Mostly it just has lots of teeth.”

Steve put his arms around her again and Nancy turned toward him, burying her face against his chest. 

“C’mon,” Jonathan said, in a subdued but non-nonsense tone. “It’s late. We’ll make a plan for how to deal with …” He looked over at the base of the tree, saying, “With _that_ tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Nancy said, wiping the tears out of her eyes and picking up the bat. She told Jonathan, “I lost your flashlight.”

Bumping his shoulder against hers as they walked, Jonathan assured her, “It’s just a flashlight. At least we didn't lose you.”

~*~

When they got back to his house, Jonathan saw the way Nancy hesitated to go over to her car and get in. “Do you want me to come with you?” he asked, somewhat because she looked too scared to be alone, but also because Jonathan couldn’t stand the thought of letting her out of his sight. 

Nancy gave Jonathan a long look before she nodded, then looked over to Steve.

He cleared his throat and said, “I can follow you guys in my car. Give Jonathan a ride back home.”

Nancy nodded again, murmuring a soft thanks. 

Jonathan told them, “Let me just talk to my mom for a minute.”

He went into the house, and found his mom sitting on the couch, an axe across her lap, staring at the wall. 

“Mom?” Jonathan asked, which seemed to startle her out of some sort of trance. 

“Oh. Jonathan,” she said, looking around the room like she was expecting to see someone else. 

Will, he assumed. 

“Are you okay?” Jonathan asked her, frowning when she nodded. 

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she insisted, even though she’d been wearing the same clothes for two days straight and her hair was kind of a mess. “How are you doing? Does your arm hurt?”

"No, it's good," Jonathan assured her, even though it did still ache when he took a second to slow down and actually think about it. "Are you going to be okay if I help get Nancy home?"

Joyce's brow furrowed and she asked, "What's going on with you these days, Jonathan? I feel like I don't know what you've been up to lately."

The lie slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it. "Nothing. Just… trying to find Will."

The concern in Joyce's face turned disbelieving. Yeah, he should've known better than to try to get anything past her bullshit filter. It had been tested time and time again by Lonnie, and now Joyce always knew when he was lying.

Deciding it would be better to rip off the bandaid and get this over with, Jonathan sat down on the coffee table across from his mother. He gave one final sigh before admitting, "Steve's not just my friend. He's my boyfriend."

Joyce closed her eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I kind of figured as much when he was so quick to volunteer to stay in the hospital with you."

Jonathan couldn't help but ask her, "Are you mad?"

"No," she said right away, leaning forward and putting her hands on his shoulders. Looking directly into his eyes, Joyce told him, "I am not mad that you're dating a boy."

A small, relieved sob bubbled up in Jonathan's throat and he pulled his mother into a hug with his good arm. She hugged him back, fiercely, and just for a second, it felt like everything was going to be okay. 

Joyce was smiling when she pulled back. "I mean, I was so _sure_ you had a crush on Nancy Wheeler, but I've been known to be wrong from time to time."

Wincing, Jonathan chuckled a little and told her, "You weren't wrong."

"Oh?" Joyce asked, giving a little laugh herself. "Hey, it's okay. Whoever you love, I love you, okay?"

Jonathan nodded slowly, "Okay."

Frowning again, Joyce pushed at something on Jonathan's sleeve. "What _is_ that?"

Not wanting to tell his mother it was some sort of goo from an actual portal to wherever it was the monster lived, Jonathan said, "Nothing. It's fine. I've gotta…" He hadn't heard Steve or Nancy leave yet, but he could imagine they might be getting anxious. "Nancy had a scare today. We just want to get her home safe, okay?"

Joyce's fingers clutched at Jonathan's good wrist. "A scare? _What_ was it that scared her? What was it?"

There was a desperation to his mother's questions that made the hair on the back of Jonathan's neck stand on end. "Mom… what did you see?"

"I thought…" she said, looking over at the front wall of the living room. "I thought it was Will. The lights spoke, and I thought they were your brother again. But…"

A cold sense of horror washed over Jonathan. "But, _what_? If it wasn't Will, what was it?"

"No, it's stupid," Joyce said, shaking her head. "I must have been dreaming. Sleeping with my eyes open. I mean, it didn't even have a _face_."

Jonathan all but fell off the coffee table in his scramble to get to his feet. "I've seen it," he told her, going to the door. "And so have the others." He opened the door, finding Nancy and Steve standing next to Nancy's car, their arms wrapped around each other. "Can you guys come in for a minute?" he called to them.

Steve looked to Nancy, who returned his look and nodded her head. She kept one hand laced with Steve's and her other hand clutching Steve's upper arm as they walked to the house together.

"What's going on?" Steve asked as he led Nancy into the house with him, Jonathan closing the door behind them. 

"She's seen it," Jonathan told them, nodding toward his mother. "She's seen the… the demo--" He couldn't exactly remember the word Mike had used, so he just said, "The _monster_."

When he looked over at her, Joyce was standing, her mouth open in confusion. "Wait. You're telling me it's _real_?"

"It's real," Nancy told her, finally letting go of Steve. “And it’s dangerous.” She swallowed visibly before continuing. “It lives in… in this other _place_. It feeds there. And I think…” Nancy looked up at Steve, and then over at Jonathan. “I think that’s where it took Will.”

“Oh!” Joyce said, and it looked like she was going to fall. Jonathan stepped closer and put his hand under his mother’s elbow, steadying her.

“We should…” Jonathan said, looking over at the others. “We should get some rest. Try and figure out what to do in the morning.”

"Are you still coming with us?" Steve asked, taking half a step toward Jonathan before stopping, his eyes on Joyce.

Jonathan wanted desperately to go with them, even just for a bit, but it seemed like his mother needed him more. He shook his head, saying, "I'll stay here." Then he closed the distance between him and Steve, pulling him into a hug and murmuring in his ear, "Take care of Nancy, huh?"

"Yeah, I will," Steve replied, stepping back awkwardly when Jonathan let go, his eyes on Joyce again.

Oh. He was worried about what Joyce might think, wasn't he? Steve didn't know Jonathan had already told her.

Jonathan went to Nancy next, clasping her hand for a moment. "Are you gonna be okay?"

Her eyes were still watery, but she nodded, her ponytail bouncing behind her. 

"Drive safe," he told her.

"Okay," Nancy said, and then she darted forward, kissing Jonathan's cheek briefly before turning toward the door and leaving.

With a slight smile and a roll of his eyes, Steve followed her out the door.

It hurt to watch them leave. Jonathan wasn't sure he was going to sleep at all. Not in this house where his mother had seen the monster. Not alone in his bedroom. But what other choice did he have? He couldn't leave Joyce _alone_ here.

Even if that _look_ she gave him after Steve and Nancy left made him want to curl up and die from embarrassment. 

~*~

Nancy felt like she was shaking the entire drive home from Jonathan's. When she got there, she was relieved to see Mike's bike (along with several others) abandoned at the side of the house. Steve parked his car on the street and came up the driveway toward her. The night was so dark around them that despite the street lamps and the security light, Nancy wrapped her arms around Steve and held onto him for a long moment. The pressure of his arms around her helped ease away the fright.

And yet…

"Can you, um…" Nancy asked, pressing her forehead against his chest so she wouldn't have to meet his eyes. "Can you come in? For a while? I can't…"

"Yeah," Steve said. "Will that be cool with your parents?"

Giving a sarcastic chuckle, Nancy said, "No. Not at all."

Looking at the house, Steve asked her, "Which window is yours?"

"That one," she said, pointing to the window over the roof of the garage.

Steve grinned at her and said, "I'll climb up, super quiet. Like a ninja."

The mental image made Nancy smile, and she nodded. "Yeah. Okay. See you up there." Honestly, she was expecting either one of her parents to catch him, or for him to fall and break something. 

Nancy couldn't seem to stop shivering, even after she went into the warm house. Neither of her parents were waiting up for her, so she went straight to her room, closing and locking the door. When she opened the window, Steve was already there, sitting on the roof of the garage and looking out at the dark street.

He looked almost as rattled as Nancy felt. 

Wordlessly, Nancy stepped back from the window. Her legs felt kind of like jello, so she sat down on her bed, wrapping her arms around herself so her hands wouldn't shake. 

Steve climbed in the window, tripping a little, but recovering easily. He turned and closed the window before looking around Nancy's room a bit. Eventually, he sat down next to Nancy, putting his arm around her back. Nancy was about to lean her head on his shoulder, when she realized there was still dirt and sticky goo on her hair and her skin and her clothes.

"I need to shower," she said, but she couldn't quite summon the energy to stand up. 

After a long silent moment, Steve asked, "Want some help? In the shower?"

His tone was light, teasing, and it made Nancy smile. A part of her did want help, but she felt like she didn't have space in her brain to process getting naked in the same room as Steve Harrington. Not when every time she closed her eyes, she kept seeing the monster turn around, baring its hundreds of teeth at her.

"No, I can do it," Nancy told him, finally standing up. She looked around, feeling lost, but eventually got her bearings and gathered some pajamas and headed to the bathroom. 

While Nancy was in the shower, some of the numbness wore off and she started crying. She tried to wash her face, to make herself feel better, but she couldn’t keep her eyes closed long enough. Every time, she was sure the monster was just behind her. The fear made her heart race and her eyes fly back open. Each time a few sobs escaped her, until eventually she was clean and out of tears. 

After getting dressed, Nancy went back to her room, kind of afraid it had been too long and Steve would have gotten bored and left. She slipped through the door carefully, closing it again behind her. The bedside lamp was lit, but the overhead one wasn’t, and Steve was stretched out on her bed, asleep.

He’d found an extra blanket from her closet and was sleeping on top of her comforter. Nancy found it endearing that he hadn’t just assumed she would want to sleep under the covers with him. She got in on the empty side of the bed, settling down against her pillow. Out of habit, she reached for the bedside lamp, before realizing that she was too scared to turn it off. 

Nancy turned to look at Steve, and wondered how often Jonathan had gotten to see him like this. Suddenly, she wished Jonathan would have come with them. What if he wasn’t safe at his house? What if the monster got him while he was sleeping? 

Shivering again, Nancy grasped Steve’s hand. It was warm and loose, and Steve didn’t stir. Nancy turned her back toward him, scooting closer and pulling his arm over her, holding his hand close to her heart. That single point of contact Made Nancy feel slightly less terrified when she closed her eyes. She hoped he wouldn’t get mad at her for taking liberties while he was asleep.

Nancy tried to sleep too, but each time she got close, she couldn’t help but remember what it felt like to be lost in that place, Jonathan’s voice the only thing tethering her back to the real world. Back home. 

~*~

When Steve woke up, it took him a few seconds to figure out where he was. Oh, right. Nancy’s room. Nancy was holding his hand, and the lamp was still on, even though the clock said it was three in the morning. 

Steve wondered if his parents had missed him yet. He’d stopped home the day before for new clothes and to grab his toothbrush, but both his parents had been out at the time. The last time he’d spent the night in his own bed had been Sunday night, and now it was early Wednesday morning. 

If he went missing like Will went missing, would anyone notice?

Well, Jonathan would, Steve knew that. And Nancy probably would too, if the way she was holding his hand was any indication. Since she had her back to him, he couldn’t tell if Nancy was asleep or not. She seemed a little too stiff to actually be asleep. 

He shifted a little closer to her, breathing in the scent of her hair and hiding his face behind her so the lamp wasn’t so bright. Steve had almost fallen asleep again when Nancy spoke. 

“We can’t let that thing get Will,” she whispered, and Steve almost wondered if she was talking to herself. But then she turned toward Steve and met his eyes. “We have to lure it and kill it. We just have to figure out what it wants.”

Groaning a little, Steve hid his face in his pillow. Then he murmured, “It wants you to be sleep deprived so you’re easier to catch.”

“It _is_ a carnivore,” she said, which seemed to come completely out of left field, until Steve remembered the way it had snatched that deer.

God, what all must have been going on in that brain of hers? Steve put his hand on the side of her face, and used his thumb to smooth out the crease between her eyebrows. Then he brushed his thumb against her cheek, finally getting a ghost of a smile out of her.

"Think you can get some sleep?" Steve asked, shifting closer and bumping his nose against hers. She didn't laugh, but she smiled again, and Steve figured that was as good as he was going to get.

"No," she said, looking down, but letting Steve pull her a little closer, until her head was on his shoulder. "Every time I close my eyes, I just… I keep seeing all those _teeth_."

Wanting to make her feel better, Steve said, "If it comes anywhere near you, I'll kick its ass."

Nancy laughed that time.

"I'm serious," he told her. "It's gonna have to go through me to get to you."

Putting her arm across his chest, Nancy said, "No offense, but I doubt it would have much trouble getting through you."

"Oh, you think so?" Steve asked, keeping his tone light. "What if I had a weapon? Like a sword?"

"Or a bat?" Nancy offered with a careful grin.

Chuckling, Steve said, "Yeah. Like something like that."

"Then you'd fare a little better, I think." Nancy sighed, settling down against him, so Steve held her a little tighter. 

"Even odds?"

Shaking her head a bit, Nancy said, "No. Not at all. Not unless we had some way to trap it."

"Like a bear?" Steve hadn't ever been hunting -- that wasn't a thing _Harringtons_ dirtied their hands with -- but it was hard not to hear about the sport living in this town. 

"Yeah," Nancy said quietly. "Like a bear."

~*~

Jonathan didn't get much sleep that night. Between hearing his mother pacing around until late and wondering what Steve and Nancy were doing without him, it was difficult to relax. His arm was feeling a lot better, but it still throbbed sometimes when he thought too hard about it. He didn't fall asleep until after taking some ibuprofen, which dulled the throbbing enough to let him sleep.

When Jonathan woke up in the morning, it was late, and he heard voices coming from the kitchen. He struggled to dress himself with his cast getting in the way (it made him miss Steve, too), but eventually he made it out there, finding Chief Hopper sitting at the table with his mother. They weren't smiling, but at least it didn't look like Joyce had been crying either. "Hey."

"Hi, honey," Joyce said, standing up to greet him with a hug.

Hugging his mother back with his good arm, Jonathan asked, "What's going on?"

Gesturing to the Chief, Joyce said, "Jim is updating me on how the search is going."

"Uh-huh." Jonathan wanted to ask if she'd tried to tell him about the place Nancy had been, the place she thought Will might be trapped in, but he didn't want to ask in front of the Chief. Jonathan knew how insane it sounded, but he also knew that Nancy had crawled through a tunnel that existed one moment and was gone the next.

And while she was over there, Jonathan had been able to hear her. 

It made him think Joyce having heard Will wasn't outside the realm of possibility after all.

"How is the search going?" Jonathan asked, not really sure whether he was asking his mom or the chief.

It was Chief Hopper who answered. "We have a few leads. We've ruled out the bus station, we're looking into some other avenues of investigation."

Jonathan nodded. What else was he supposed to do? Praise Hopper for looking in all the wrong places? He wished he could tell Hopper about Eleven, and the fact that she seemed to know what the monster was and where it had come from, but he wasn't sure what good it would do. And the harm? Well, Hopper might just put Eleven back in the hands of whoever it was she'd run away from. Jonathan couldn't let that happen. Not when Eleven seemed to know where Will was. Perhaps she also knew how to get him back.

Now that it was morning, and his mom would likely be okay by herself, Jonathan had to get over to the Wheeler house. He just… didn't know how best to do that. _His_ car was totaled. He could ask to borrow Joyce's, but how was he going to shift with his right arm in a cast? No, he was going to need a ride.

Checking the time, he noticed that school had already started. He wondered if anyone had actually gone that day, or if, like him, they were too distracted by Will's disappearance. If they were going to be gathered anywhere, it was probably going to be the Wheelers' house, right?

Excusing himself from the conversation, Jonathan went to the phone. Nancy's number was still on a little scrap of paper in his room, but he'd looked at it enough times over the past few days that he remembered it. After dialing, he went around the corner into the dining room. It wasn't much privacy, but it was something, anyway.

After three rings, Nancy answered, "Hello?"

"Hey, you're still there," Jonathan said softly, trying not to be overheard by his mom and the Chief. "I mean, you're not at school."

"I told my mom I threw up," she said, and god, she sounded tired. "Steve went to school."

"What about your brother and his… friends?" Jonathan wasn't sure how to describe Eleven in a way that wouldn't seem suspicious if he was being overheard.

"Mike also has the 'stomach bug,'" she told him. "I think he's working on some sort of plan."

"Can you…" Jonathan started to ask, before he realized he couldn't think of the right words. "I need to talk to _her_. About Will. But I can't drive."

"I'll come get you," Nancy said. "My mom went somewhere for a while, but I've got the old car here still. Who knows what she gets up to now that Holly's in Kindergarten?"

In the back of his head, Jonathan knew that Nancy had a little sister, having heard about her at length by being in the room while Mike was griping to Will about her when she was a baby. Still, Jonathan was startled when Nancy mentioned her. He didn't think he'd heard Nancy talk about her sister yet. Not that he'd actually spent all that much time talking to Nancy. 

This … _relationship_ , or whatever it was they had going on was still new. It had been intense enough, both in how it started, and in how things had evolved this week since the crash, that Jonathan was startled to remember that he'd been paired up with Nancy for that paper in Baker's class less than a week ago. 

"Thanks," he told her, glad he'd showered (with his cast carefully covered) the night before. All he had to do was struggle into some clothes and meet her outside. "See you soon."

Nancy said goodbye and Jonathan hung up the phone. Joyce and Chief Hopper were sitting next to each other at the kitchen table, looking over papers about something or other. Jonathan was half curious what they were about, but mostly he wanted to get out of the house without Joyce holding him back. He couldn't just be _here_ waiting for news about Will that would never come.

If Joyce heard Will from that other place, then he was stuck there. Eleven knew about the monster. She would know how to get Will back. They just had to get her to talk. Maybe Mike had already done it, maybe he hadn't. All Jonathan knew was that if he let Hopper know about Eleven, he would want to question her himself. And for a girl as skittish as Eleven? Hopper asking the questions would for sure freak her out even more.

Jonathan, on the other hand, knew all about how to finesse answers out of a nervous wreck. On his mom's bad days, that was just about all he did. Sometimes, especially when Lonnie stopped showing up as promised, Jonathan had to finesse answers out of Will, too.

And there was something about Eleven that reminded Jonathan of Will. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, especially given how he hadn't interacted with her directly, but it was there. Jonathan was going to try to use that similarity to his advantage.


	10. Planning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nancy and Jonathan start gathering the information they need to plan Will's rescue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: physical and emotional bullying in this chapter.

“So,” Nancy said, looking around the basement at Jonathan, Mike, and Eleven. “What do we need to know first?”

Mike opened his mouth, but Jonathan beat him to it. “Is Will in that place Nancy found? The monster’s world?”

Eleven gave Jonathan a long look, but eventually she nodded. 

“How do we get back there?” Nancy asked, sitting down in the chair next to Jonathan’s. 

Eleven seemed to be thinking through a few things, before eventually saying, “You can’t.”

“What do you mean, we can’t?” Mike asked, incredulous. 

Nancy figured Eleven’s wide-eyed look meant she was too taken aback by Mike’s tone to give much of an answer. So instead, Nancy reframed the question. “Can _anyone_ get to Will?”

“I don’t…” Eleven said, meeting Mike’s eyes before looking down at her hands. “I don’t know.”

Mike sighed, but he put his hand over Eleven’s in a comforting gesture. 

After a moment of silence, Jonathan asked, “The monster can make a tunnel, or a door, from there to here, right? That’s how it came and got that deer last night.”

Nancy shivered at the memory, leaning closer to Jonathan. She’d managed a few hours of sleep with Steve watching over her that morning. His presence had helped her not feel quite so scared, and she’d hated the fact that Steve had gone to school this morning. Nancy understood that he had commitments he couldn’t give up completely. Not if he wanted to graduate on time. Nancy thought about the assignments she’d brought home and promptly forgot about the night before. Surely a boy’s life was more important than a few homework assignments, even if those grades might spell the difference between going to Notre Dame or Purdue and going somewhere like State. It might change the entire course of her future, but Nancy knew she wanted to be the type of person who helped when someone was in danger. She didn’t want to be the person who lost sight of other people’s value when focused on her own goals. 

Because what were those goals really worth if she lost sight of her own humanity in the process?

Mike broke into her thoughts, saying, “If the monster, the _demogorgon_ , can make a door to Will, is there some way we can use that?”

“Use the door it makes?” Nancy asked, and a glance over at Jonathan told her he’d been thinking along the same lines. “How can we do that safely? Without putting our lives, or Will’s life, on the line?”

Mike sighed and shook his head, while Jonathan murmured, “I don’t know.”

“What if we kill it?” Nancy asked. “I don’t exactly know _how_ yet, but we know it eats. If it eats, that means it’s mortal, right?”

“There’s just so much we don’t know…” Jonathan pushed his good hand back into his hair. 

Mike turned to Eleven, asking her, “What can you tell us about the demogorgon? Does it have any weaknesses?”

Eleven opened her mouth, but shook her head before saying, “I don’t know.”

"How do we even know _where_ to lure it to?" Nancy asked. "That door I went through was open for, what? Maybe five minutes? How are we going to fight the demogorgon and find Will fast enough to get him through again before the door closes?"

"Good point," Mike said, frowning like he was thinking through the problem.

Jonathan shrugged, eyes downcast, his good hand picking at the edge of his cast. Nancy missed how relaxed he was around Steve. That first evening, last Friday, the way Jonathan opened up around Steve had struck her as kind of strange. But now she understood. Steve was really good at being reassuring and distracting, using conversation and stupid jokes to make her feel better. Nancy had slept a few hours, just because Steve was there, watching over her. 

God, she wished Steve was with them now. Nancy leaned closer to Jonathan, somewhat mollified when he put his arm around her. Still, she felt the way Jonathan didn’t _quite_ relax, the way he bounced his leg. She almost wanted to take him to her room and kiss him until he was less nervous, but they were just so _close_ to an answer.

Pulling Nancy out of her thoughts, Eleven spoke again. "I can find him."

“Who?” Jonathan asked, taking his arm from around Nancy. “Will?”

Eleven nodded, then she looked around the basement, until she found Mike’s radio. Sitting down on the floor, she tuned it to static and closed her eyes. 

Softly, Nancy asked her brother, “What’s she doing?”

“I dunno,” Mike said, shaking his head. 

After a moment of listening to the static on Mike’s radio, Nancy was just about ready to go find something more productive to do, when she heard it. 

“...there will be trouble, and if I stay there will be double. So come on and let me know…”

Eyes wide, Nancy looked over at Jonathan, whose mouth had fallen open. 

“That’s him,” Jonathan said softly. “That’s Will. Is this a recording?”

El kept her eyes shut, and a droplet of blood dribbled out of her nose. She didn’t answer Jonathan’s question. 

Mike said, “I think this is happening _now_.”

Eyes still closed, El nodded once. 

“He’s still alive,” Nancy pointed out with a relieved sigh. “Now all we have to do is make a plan.”

“Oh, _all_ we have to do, huh?” Mike asked, making a bratty face at her. 

Ignoring the sibling squabbles, Jonathan asked Eleven, “Can you tell _where_ he is?”

Eleven made a pained face, before whispering, “Castle Byers.”

The radio fell out of her hands, bouncing on the rug laid out over the concrete. She swayed as she opened her eyes, starting to fall. Mike darted forward and caught her in his arms, lowering her the rest of the way to the ground. Startled, Nancy got to her feet, taking a step toward them. 

“Eleven?” Mike asked, patting her face. Her eyes fluttered a bit, but she didn’t wake up. The worried expression on Mike’s face when he looked up at Nancy broke her heart. “What’s wrong with her?”

“I don’t know,” Nancy said, grabbing a tissue from the box next to the couch and wiping away the trickle of blood. 

“Maybe she pushed herself too hard," Jonathan suggested, putting his good hand on Nancy's shoulder.

Nancy covered his hand with her own, frowning at El. "What if she needs a doctor?"

"Someone's after her, "Mike said, holding one of El's hands between both of his. "We can't draw attention to her. If we go to a doctor, they're going to find her."

"She can't help us find Will if she's unconscious. Or _dead_ ," Nancy argued. She opened her mouth to say more, but the sound of the garage door opening stopped her.

El was laying in direct view of anyone at the top of the stairs, and odds were better than even that her mom was going to look down them sometime in the next few minutes.

"We have to move her," Nancy said, more to Mike than to Jonathan, since he had the broken arm.

Pointing to the nest of blankets and pillows he'd made behind the couch, Mike said, "Over there." He grabbed El under her arms, so Nancy picked up her legs and helped Mike carry her back there.

"Should I hide too?" Jonathan asked, to wish Nancy shook her head.

"No, it's fine," she told him, reaching out to hold his hand. Honestly, she kind of wanted to get her mom used to the fact that she had one boyfriend before she dropped the bombshell that, oh yeah, she was actually dating two boys. Maybe if they did this in a gradual fashion, they could get through it without Karen Wheeler's head exploding. "I want you to stay."

Jonathan nodded before pulling Nancy into a one-armed hug. She hugged him back, breathing in his scent and holding him close. She hoped she was comforting him even half as much as his presence comforted her. The way he sighed and the tension melted out of his shoulders made Nancy think she was probably doing at least some good.

~*~

Steve hated being back at school without Jonathan or Nancy there. Every time he tried to interact with one of his old friends -- they were acquaintances, really -- he got frustrated with them for not being one of the two people he was dating. At lunch, he didn't know where to sit. After the fight with Tommy at practice the other day, Steve didn't want to sit with him and his friends. So instead, he sat with some of the other guys on the basketball team. It was alright, and they didn't exclude him or anything, but they made no effort to _include_ him either.

This sucked.

As lunch let out, Barb Holland actually approached _him_ , that Robin girl trailing in her wake. "Hey. Do you know if Nancy is okay?"

"Yeah," he assured Barb, his face getting hot when he noticed Tommy giving him a questioning look, like he couldn't believe Steve was talking to Barb, like he _shouldn't_ be talking to Barb. Well fuck that and fuck Tommy. Steve was into Nancy, so he was going to make nice with her friends, no matter how "uncool" Tommy thought they were.

At that moment, Steve realized something he'd been feeling for a while. He was done with Tommy and done with worrying about what Tommy thought. He was a miserable asshole, and sure that was Carol's style too. And Billy's. That didn't mean Steve had to join them. He was much happier being with people who actually cared about him, like Jonathan. And Nancy.

"Yeah," Steve told Barb again with a comforting smile. "I think she just came down with whatever it was that kept me home yesterday."

Her voice flat, but a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, Barb asked quietly, "Oh, yeah? What do they call it? Byers-itis?"

Steve found himself grinning and stifling a laugh. "Something like that," Steve agreed, giving Robin a friendly little wave when she caught his eye. He told Barb, "I think she was going to be at home today. You know, because she's 'sick.' I'm sure you could call her."

Barb laughed, a sharp, short noise that made Steve think she was just as surprised to be amused by him as he was about her. "Yeah, I'll do that," she said, giving him a final nod before leaving, walking down the hallway with Robin. Huh. Steve hadn't known they were friends. Then again, he hadn't paid much attention to either of them before he'd kissed Nancy Wheeler.

That should have been that, but during the time between class ending and practice starting, Tommy and Billy caught up with him. 

Since locker assignments were alphabetical by last name, Billy's locker was directly between Steve's and Tommy's. Before Billy had moved to Hawkins, Steve's and Tommy's lockers had always been right next to each other, but his arrival had ruined everything. After slamming his locker shut, Tommy looked past Billy and said, "Hey, Harrington. Don't think I missed the way you've been cozying up to all the nerds and losers in this place. First you're friends with that Byers creep, and now you're buddy-buddy with Barb Holland?"

Billy turned toward Steve, making a sharp barking noise before adding, "Dog alert! That chick is disgusting."

Steve turned to face the two of them, resting his hands on his hips. Tommy had always been kind of mean, but he'd gotten much worse since Billy's arrival. They always egged each other on and Steve was sick of it.

"Do you guys have to be assholes about everyone?" he asked, frowning at them. "Barb is Nancy's friend."

Smirking over at Billy, Tommy said, "Guy starts getting passing grades for once, and suddenly he's dating the class nerd."

"I think he's gone full nerd on us, Tom," Billy said, putting an arm across Tommy's shoulders. "It's sad, really. He had such potential."

Steve wondered if Billy knew how it looked when he put his arm around Tommy like that. Somehow he could get away with it, even though Tommy had given Steve shit about expressing concern for Jonathan when he'd been in a car crash. It was a fucking demented double standard, and Steve was glad high school was drawing to a close for all of them this year.

Steve shook his head and closed his locker, saying, "I'm over this bullshit." He turned and walked away, making it five steps before his wrist was yanked, turning him around to face Billy. Billy pushed Steve against the bank of lockers, getting in his face. The few other students still straggling in the hallway looked over, but none of them volunteered to pull Billy off him. "Who are you calling bullshit, Harrington?" Billy demanded.

Steve broke Billy's hold on his shirt and pushed him back. "Back off, man. I've already got a make-out partner, thanks."

The insinuation made Billy's face twist into an expression of disgust. He threw a punch, but Steve managed to duck fast enough that Billy ended up punching the locker behind Steve instead.

While Billy growled with pain and rage, Steve put as much distance between him and them as he could. He bit back a smart remark about his guess hitting a nerve. Billy was definitely the kind of criminal who might actually kill someone sooner or later.

But it was Tommy who stalked after Steve, calling out, "What the fuck, Harrington? If you just made Billy break his hand, we're going to lose Friday's game!"

"Maybe he shouldn't be going around trying to punch people," Steve shot back, reaching the end of the hallway. The locker room was through the gym doors and down a narrow set of stairs, and no way was Steve trapping himself in there alone with Tommy and Billy. So, he backed up against the side exit doors, giving himself an out.

"Always with the smart mouth," Tommy spat, taking another step toward Steve. Billy hung back for the time being, at least. "I should have known you'd fall for a nerd. You know you're too dumb to actuallly _be_ one of them, right?"

Over the past couple months, Steve had gotten used to Jonathan's encouragement, his insistence that Steve wasn't stupid, he just had some extra challenges that most people didn't. Hearing the insult come out of Tommy's mouth, probably for the thousandth time, didn't beat Steve down like it used to. Instead, it pissed him off.

"I can't _believe_ I was ever friends with a cynical asshole like you," he said, giving a harsh laugh. "You're gonna end up one of those old losers who spent so much time hating everything they never figured out how to actually _enjoy_ life. I'm glad I woke up before you dragged me down that path with you."

"Is that right?" Tommy asked, a sharp, hateful grin on his lips. "And what, exactly, are _you_ enjoying these days, Steve? Nancy? That nerd is wound so tight, I bet her pussy is like a vice. She flatten your dick yet? King Steve?"

Steve rolled his eyes. He'd never been overly fond of that nickname. He knew Tommy only ever used it sarcastically, even if some of the other kids seemed to use it earnestly. 

"Or…" Tommy took another step closer, his grin even sharper. "Have you completely crossed over to the other side of the fence?"

Steve got a sinking feeling, and he really hoped someone else from the team was going to show up soon. He scoffed and asked Tommy, "What fence?" more to stall than anything else. If he had to miss practice again because of Tommy, Steve was sure Coach was going to bench him for the rest of the season.

"Byers," Tommy spat. "You're sticking it to that fairy, aren't you?" Scowling with disgust, Tommy added, "God, I hope he's not the one sticking it to you. King Steve, turned bitch to the kid who probably killed his little brother and buried him in the woods everyone keeps searching."

"You'd better shut your fucking mouth, Tommy," Steve growled, taking a step away from the door so he could get close enough to look down at Tommy.

"Or what?" Tommy asked with a sneer. "We _both_ know you're not much of a fighter," he said, no doubt referencing the fight they'd gotten into with some kids over in Roane back in freshman year. Steve had made a joke at the expense of the wrong kid and ended up with a black eye. Tommy had fought the kids off well enough to get Steve out of there. Now, though, Tommy looked like he was about a second away from trying to give Steve another black eye. Then he shook his head and muttered, "I should have known you were a homo freak."

Steve suddenly realized how similar Tommy was to Fred Harrington, his father. Both of them liked to point out where they thought Steve was going wrong. They liked to push Steve down, to make themselves feel better. It didn't matter to either of them that Steve was actually doing much better at school with Jonathan's help. He also doubted either of them cared how happy loving Jonathan made him feel. Neither one of them cared that Steve felt better about himself than he had in a long time. He knew who he was now, and he didn't need this bullshit. Hell, he didn't even really need basketball. With Tommy and Billy on the team, it was causing him more harm than good. 

Still, Steve wanted to make it out of Hawkins _alive_ , so he said to Tommy, "You really should think about why you're so obsessed about my friendship with Jonathan. I mean, it's obvious I'm dating Nancy. Are you sure _you're_ not the one with the crush on…" Steve pointed to his own chest, raising his eyebrows. "I mean, I'm flattered, but I'm just not interested, man. Hope you get over the heartbreak soon."

Leaving Tommy floundering, Steve left the building and went straight to his car, not even bothering to get his jacket, or his homework. There would be time to catch up later.

Well, there would be as long as Tommy and Billy backed off and left him alone. Otherwise, Steve might have to get a knife or something. And learn how to use it.

~*~

After letting Mrs. Wheeler feed him lunch, Jonathan got her to let Nancy and Mike both come with him to "get an update on Will" at his house. Really, they were taking El, who had finally woken up, over there.

"You're sure you can hide her better at your place?" Mike asked, helping El cover herself with the blanket in the back of the station wagon Nancy drove. "Those bad men who killed Benny are still looking for her."

"My mom is too preoccupied to notice," Jonathan told them with a scoff. "And even if she does notice, she'd never sell out a kid. Especially one who's been…" Jonathan couldn't quite say the word out loud. It had taken him long enough after the divorce to come to terms with the fact that his father's behavior toward him was abusive. He'd been _abused_. Certainly it hadn't been as bad as some kids endured, because Joyce had protected her sons by divorcing Lonnie as soon as she could after the physical stuff started. Before then, it had all been emotional, and there was this persistent thought that Lonnie was just _like that_ and Jonathan just needed a thicker skin. That, or he needed to stay out of Lonnie's way, or he needed to just not say the things that made Lonnie upset.

No, it had been abuse the entire time, and no one deserved that. Especially not El, who had all but burned herself out trying to help Jonathan and Mike find Will. Joyce would see the kindness in El. She would know that El needed to be protected. Jonathan was sure of it.

"My mom will protect her," Jonathan insisted to the others. "She's not one to trust 'the man' anyway."

Nancy gave a little snort at Jonathan's phrasing, but from the back seat, Mike said, "No, you're right. Your mom is a way better option than our parents."

As she pulled up to a stop sign, Nancy gave Jonathan a significant look before telling him, "My parents voted for Reagan. Twice."

Nodding, Jonathan replied, "Yeah, my mom is the safest option. For sure."

Except, when they got to the house, there had been a major change in the appearance of the living room. Jonathan had only been gone maybe five hours, and in that span his mother had put up even more Christmas lights, including a set strung up against the back living room wall. Below each of those lights was a letter written in dark black paint.

"Oh, Jonathan," Joyce said as he came into the house. "Will has been talking to me."

"With the lights?" Jonathan surmised. 

He winced when Nancy came through the door and stopped short. She whispered, "Whoa," as she took in the scene with wide eyes.

This looked almost nothing like the room where he and Nancy had first kissed.

"Who's this?" Joyce asked when Mike brought Eleven into the house.

Mike looked to Jonathan, who wasn't quite sure what to say. Giving it a shot, he said, "Mom, this is… this is _El_." He flexed the fingers on his right hand, trying not to be distracted by how tight the muscles felt as he tried to find the right words. Eventually, he said, "She can hear Will, too. She's going to help us find him."

Joyce's eyes went wide and she bit her lip. "You-- you can hear him?" Joyce asked El, taking a step toward her.

There were dark circles under El's eyes, and she looked like she needed a nap, and maybe something to eat. Still, she met Joyce's eyes and gave a solemn nod. "Yes."

"She needs to rest," Jonathan insisted, gently steering El toward the kitchen. "But Will is close, right?"

El nodded. "Yes. He's here."

"Castle Byers, she said before," Mike reminded them. "He's hiding there."

Joyce shook her head. "No, that's one of the first places we looked! And I keep checking back, but he's not…" With a huff, she wrapped her arms around herself and said, "I can feel him, but I can't see him."

"That's because he's here, but he's not really here," Mike said. "He's in that other place. The monster's place."

El sat down at the table, looking more weary than Jonathan had ever seen a teenager look. Yeah, she really needed to eat. He went over to the refrigerator and opened it, gathering what he could find to make a sandwich for her.

Nodding, Joyce repeated, "The _monster_. Right. The one without a face. We need to keep it away from him."

"We're working on a plan," Nancy assured her, taking over from Jonathan at the counter, putting together a sandwich with practiced (unbroken) hands. "We need to find out what draws the monster here, to our world."

"And we need to know how to kill it," Jonathan pointed out, shaking his head. Remembering that flash of the monster he'd seen in his headlights before crashing his car, Jonathan said, "It's big. Bigger than any of us. We're going to have to make a plan."

"I don't want any of you kids getting hurt," Joyce insisted, sitting down across the table from El. 

Nancy set the sandwich down in front of the girl, following the plate with a glass of milk. "Not getting hurt is part of the plan," Nancy assured her. 

Suddenly, the front door opened, and Jonathan thought for sure the bad men had found El. Except, the first figure through the door was Lucas, followed by Max and Dustin. Jonathan thought that would be it, but Steve followed them in, a warm smile on his face.

"Mike!" Lucas cried, joining everyone in the kitchen. "I know where the bad men are!"

"What?" Mike asked, wrapping his hand around Lucas' arm. "Where? Are they coming here?"

"No, see," Dustin said, taking a piece of paper out of his backpack. "We asked Mr. Clarke today after class how a person would get from one dimension into another." Steve joined Jonathan at the kitchen counter, pulling him into a sort of sideways (friendly) hug. He gave a similar hug to Nancy.

" _He_ said that a doorway to another dimension would take an incredible amount of energy," Lucas added.

Rolling her eyes, Max said, "I still think it's impossible for anyone to be hiding a source of electricity that big here in _Hawkins_."

"But, the monster _exists_ , and Nancy found evidence that the other dimension _exists_. Therefore, the portal _exists_." Dustin continued on, unfolding the piece of paper and spreading it out on the table as he spoke. "Mr. Clarke said that the portal would generate a magnetic field. So, after school we tracked it. The magnetic field is coming from here." Dustin put his finger on the paper, which Jonathan saw was a map of Hawkins. Dustin's finger was on something near the edge of town, right by the road where Jonathan had crashed.

"Hawkins lab?" Nancy asked, and Jonathan noticed the way El sat up straighter and put down her sandwich. Her posture only made sense if she knew what Nancy was talking about.

Quietly, Jonathan leaned closer to Steve and asked him, "Were you in on this mission?"

Frowning, Steve shook his head. "I just followed them the last quarter mile up the road."

Noting the time on the wall clock, Jonathan asked, "Why aren't you at basketball practice?"

"Didn't feel like getting murdered today," Steve said, his tone blithe. He pointed to Dustin's map, "Nancy and I saw the monster in those woods next to the lab."

"What do they do there?" Joyce asked everyone. Jonathan had no idea, but he watched El's face as the others discussed it around them.

"It's military," Mike told the others. El flinched.

"No, it's not! It says Department of Energy," Lucas insisted.

Max shook her head and asked, "But what about all the soldiers we saw?"

"It _is_ military!" Mike insisted. "My dad told me once. Energy is code for _weapons_. That's where they invent weapons to use against the Russians." 

El fidgeted for a second before getting up from the table and heading down the hallway. The bathroom door closed behind her.

"What was that about?" Dustin asked.

Jonathan was about to tell him, but Nancy got there first, saying in a quiet voice, "Guys, I think _she's_ the weapon."

"Jesus," Joyce breathed, and Jonathan could see in the set of her shoulders the way his mother made up her mind to protect El. "Those bastards!"

Moving past that revelation, Mike asked the others, "If there _is_ a gate in this place, how are we going to get past all the soldiers?"

"We can still go with our original plan," Nancy told him. "Lure the monster here, kill it, and get Will back before the monster's door closes."

"Except we don't know how to lure the monster," Dustin said. "Unless you guys have some insight that we don't know about?"

With a slight pout on her lips, Nancy shook her head.

Steve told the others, "We know it took that deer to eat. Maybe that's what we need: meat."

"Yeah, or blood," Lucas told the others. "Sharks can smell a drop of blood like a mile away."

"That's not true, is it?" Max asked him.

"One part per million," Nancy told them. "Maybe a quarter mile."

"Yeah, but across _dimensions_? How would that work?" Dustin asked them.

Joyce said, "If Will really is in that… that other place, _I_ can feel him from here. He can make the lights speak."

"There's some sort of information flow back and forth," Nancy agreed. "I could hear Jonathan when I was over there. Maybe it was just because the tunnel was open but…

"It sounded to me like you were right next to me," Jonathan told her, reaching over and taking Nancy's right hand with his left one. "When you were over there."

"Great, so at least some of us can hear or feel or whatever," Max told the others. "Maybe the monster can do something similar. That still doesn't tell us how we're going to kill it."

"I can kill it," Eleven said, and Jonathan wondered how long she'd been standing at the entryway to the kitchen without him noticing. 

Everyone looked around the room, but it was Lucas who spoke first. "Yeah, maybe you can, but this thing made Will disappear. What if it makes the rest of us disappear before you get the chance to kill it? We need a back up plan."

"Then let's make a plan," Nancy said, taking a pad of paper and pen out of her bag and sitting down at the kitchen table. "Start giving me ideas to write down, people."

The kids all began talking at once.


	11. The Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nancy gets a midnight call from the hospital.

Eventually, it became clear that whichever plan they were going to pursue, they were going to have to implement it in the morning. This fact was punctuated by Nancy's mom calling the Byers' house and demanding she and Mike return home for bed. "Fine," Nancy told Karen, ignoring the scowl Mike gave her. "We'll be home in a few minutes."

After she hung up, Mike asked, "What the hell, Nancy?"

"We all need sleep," Nancy told her brother. "Especially El. We're not going to do Will any good if we get ourselves killed trying to rescue him on too little sleep."

"But if we don't rescue him soon, the demogorgon could find him! Every minute he spends in that place is a minute too long!" 

Nancy turned to the only real authority in the room, saying to Joyce, "He's your son. What do you want to do?"

"Will is…" Joyce said, giving Mike a sad smile. "He's _strong_. He's going to make it." Mike opened his mouth, but Joyce held up a finger and stopped him. "We can't help Will if your mother raises holy hell because I didn't make you go home when she asked. Please, Michael. We'll get him back as soon as we can."

Mike made a frustrated noise and crossed his arms, but he didn't argue. Until he remembered El, at least. He asked the girl, "Are you going to be okay here?"

Looking at Joyce, then Jonathan, El nodded.

Joyce assured Mike, "We'll take very good care of her. She'll be safe here."

"Come on, guys," Nancy said, herding Mike and his friends toward the door. "Let's see if we can fit your bikes in the back of my car. I'll drive you home."

There was grumbling all around, but they started moving nonetheless. Nancy hung back to say her goodbyes to Jonathan. Before she could say anything, though, Joyce said, "Come on. You should go home too, Steve."

"My parents aren't even home," he said. "I went to the house after school and found a note. They forgot to tell me they were going out of town for a few days."

"So they just _left_ you?" Joyce asked, as if Steve's parents had done the unthinkable. When Steve nodded, Joyce told him, "Okay. You can stay, too."

Nancy pouted, wishing she could have stayed as well. The fear of the demogorgon, as Mike called the monster, wasn't as fresh as it had been the night before. Still, Nancy knew she wasn't looking forward to trying to sleep in her room alone.

"Come on," Jonathan said to Nancy, reaching out to her with his left hand. "We'll walk you out."

Nodding, Nancy folded her hand into his and walked toward the door, Steve following them. Just outside the door, Nancy stopped, wrapping her arms around Jonathan. As she hugged him, she whispered, "Tomorrow, we'll get him back, okay?"

Jonathan nodded and whispered back, "Okay."

He looked sad, though, and Nancy couldn't help but kiss him. When she pulled back, he had a little smile on his face. Nancy returned the smile. 

Stepping a little closer, Steve cupped Nancy's jaw and the back of her neck in his hand, leaning in to kiss her, too. "Get home safe," he said softly in her ear as Nancy hugged him around the middle.

"I don't want to go," she admitted, loud enough that Jonathan could hear her too.

Steve hugged her back and Jonathan murmured, "We'll have time. After we get Will home, we'll have time. We'll figure this out."

He seemed so sure about … well, about _everything_. Nancy looked up at him, and she realized his face said a lot more than his words or his voice had. He _wasn't_ sure. Not about Will, not about them. _But_ he was trying to make her feel better, and that counted for a lot.

With a nod, Nancy grabbed Jonathan's hand and squeezed it again, saying, "I'm going to hold you to that."

He smiled, and Steve gave a soft laugh, and Nancy wanted to stay safe between them _forever_. She made herself leave, knowing that she had a responsibility to get Mike and his friends home. Being an adult was supposed to come with more freedoms, but it also came with responsibilities. Nancy sighed and got into the car.

From the back, Dustin leaned forward and asked, "Did you just kiss _both_ Jonathan and Steve goodbye?"

"That's none of your business," Nancy told him, starting the car. Feeling her cheeks grow hot, Nancy was glad that it was dark out, so her brother and his friends couldn't see her blush. She managed to drop off all of Mike's friends, starting with Max and ending with Lucas, and pull into the driveway within twenty minutes of her mother's call.

As she parked the car, she asked Mike, "Don't tell mom that I have two boyfriends, okay?"

Mike rolled his eyes and scoffed, but after a second, he nodded too. Then he gave her half a smile and said, "Don't tell Mom I was harboring a fugitive from the government in our basement for a day and a half."

With a short laugh, Nancy nodded. "Yeah, okay. Deal."

Karen ushered them into the house, a deep frown on her face. "It's a school night, you two. And you weren't feeling well earlier. You should have been home an hour ago."

"Sorry, Mom," Nancy said, heading for the stairs. She expected Mike to follow her, but he brushed past Karen, heading for the kitchen. Well, whatever his deal was, their mom could handle it. Nancy needed to get to sleep before she had time to be frightened of the dark.

But, after showering and brushing her teeth, putting her pajamas on, and getting settled in bed, all the shadows in her room seemed to crawl. She turned her bedside lamp back on and turned away from it, ignoring the lingering shadows. The monster wasn't here. If it was anywhere, it was probably showing up back at the Byers house, where Jonathan and Steve both were, without her.

More to distract herself than anything else, Nancy went over all the plans they'd come up with that evening. What they really needed was _weapons_ , but besides the Byers' shotgun, Nancy couldn't think of where to get something dangerous to wield against a monster from another dimension. They needed the sort of weapons the army had. 

There was that lab…and all the heavily-armed soldiers inside it.

What if they lured the monster and led it on a goose chase to the lab, then let the army take care of it? But, how could they do that without the government finding out who they were, and by extension, where they could find El? Nancy couldn't condone a plan that threw Eleven under the bus like that. No, they had to get weapons from somewhere else.

Nancy was just remembering that there was an army surplus store downtown, when the phone rang.

Terrified that she was right and the monster had shown up and killed her boys, Nancy snatched up her extension and demanded, "Hello?"

"Nancy!" 

It wasn't Jonathan's voice, or even Steve's, but _Barb's_ on the other end of the line.

Concerned, Nancy sat up and reached for the sweatshirt hanging on the back of her desk chair. "Barb? What's going on? It's almost midnight!"

"I know, but I'm at the hospital and--"

"Oh, my god!" Nancy exclaimed, standing up, the phone in one hand and her sweatshirt, forgotten, in the other. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Barb said, but her voice sounded watery, like she was about to start crying. "But Robin…"

It took Nancy a moment to remember who Robin was -- Robin Buckley, Barb's partner for Mrs. Baker's project. "What happened?" Nancy asked, and when Barb didn't answer right away, she repeated the question. "Barb, what happened?"

She heard Barb take a few shaky breaths, but then she said, "We were attacked. I'm not sure by what, but Robin is… Nancy, she's _really_ hurt."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Nancy said, wondering if they'd been attacked by the demogorgon. It was still out there, looking for food, and Nancy hadn't been able to make a plan fast enough. It was her fault it was still out there, attacking people.

_Shit_.

Nancy guessed all she could do now was make it up to Barb. "Tell me what I can do."

Barb sighed. "Can you go to my house? I tried calling, but no one picked up. I just… I need my mom."

"I'll get her for you," Nancy promised. "Where should I bring her? The ER? Hawkins memorial?"

"Yeah," Barb said. "Thanks, Nancy."

"Of course," Nancy told her. "Of course. I'll be there soon."

"See you then."

After hanging up the phone, Nancy pulled the sweatshirt on over her head. Then she exchanged her pajama pants for jeans and put some socks on her feet. As she was putting on her sneakers, Nancy thought about writing a note before she left, but after the way Karen had looked when she and Mike got home? Nancy figured it would be better to wake her mom first.

By the time Nancy left her room, her mother was already in the upstairs hallway, closing her bedroom door behind her.

"Mom," Nancy whispered, stepping closer so it would be easier to understand each other while whispering. "That was Barb. She's at the hospital and her parents aren't picking up the phone. I promised I would go over and wake them up."

With a sharp nod, Karen said, "I'm coming with you."

Nancy wanted to argue that she could handle this by herself, but honestly, she wasn't quite sure she actually _could_. Between her confusing romantic life, the monster terrorizing the town, her brother's missing friend, and the fugitive they were all harboring, Nancy's mind was kind of full. Nodding, Nancy said, "Thanks. That would be good."

Karen dressed quickly, and when they left the house, it was in Karen's newer station wagon, not the old one she had passed down to Nancy the summer before. It wasn't far to Barb's house -- she and Barb used to ride their bikes back and forth between houses all day during the summer -- and when they got there, Karen got out of the car too.

Nancy went with her mother to the front door, pulling her coat close around her against the cold night air. Was it this cold wherever Will was? Would he survive another night before they could come get him? Would Nancy be any good to anyone after spending the night with Barb at the hospital?

It took a few rings of the doorbell before Mr. Holland opened it, his frown melting when he saw them. "What? Nancy? Karen? What's going on?"

"Barb is okay," Nancy said, reaching out and taking his hands, trying to comfort him, "but she's at the hospital. She said she called, but no one answered."

"Oh, my god," Mr. Holland said, turning back toward the house for a second before he turned again to face them. "Thank you," he said, taking a moment to look at Nancy, and then at Karen. "Thank you."

As he went back into the house, without closing the door behind him, Karen called after him, "I could drive you, if you want? A steady hand at the wheel?"

Mr. Holland didn't answer, but Karen stepped into the house, and Nancy followed her.

As they waited for the Hollands to get dressed, Karen stood close to Nancy and asked in a low voice, "What did Barb say had happened?"

Without thinking, Nancy told her mom, "Barb said they were attacked."

"They?"

_Shit_. 

Nancy bit her lip. At this point, she had a fairly good idea what Barb and Robin might have been doing way out in the woods, alone together. Nancy hadn't quite been sure about Barb. After all, it wasn't like Barb had ever _said_ anything explicitly. But Nancy had heard the rumors, had defended her best friend against them vociferously, and suddenly Nancy wondered if she'd gone too far and convinced Barb she wouldn't be accepting of her _best friend_ for being gay. God, she hoped that wasn't the case. And how could Barb really think that, even after Nancy had told her about Steve and Jonathan? 

Not that Nancy had to let her mother in on any of that. She said, "Barb was with our friend Robin. Apparently Robin was hurt pretty badly."

"Shit," Karen said, rolling her eyes when Nancy feigned surprise. They both knew that Karen tended to curse when her younger children weren't around. "Has anyone contacted Robin's parents?"

"I don't know," Nancy told her. "Barb seemed pretty shaken up on the phone. She didn't say anything about that, and I didn't think to ask."

Nodding, Karen said, "We'll figure it out when we get there."

Mrs. and Mr. Holland came out from the back hall, looking hastily dressed, not that Nancy faulted them for it one bit. As he reached past Nancy for the coat closet, he said to Karen, "Would you mind driving? I have to admit, I've got quite the case of nerves."

"And rightfully so," Karen assured him, squeezing his shoulder and giving Mrs. Holland a hug. "Do either of you have house keys?"

"Oh!" Mrs. Holland said, "I didn't even--"

"I've got them, Marsha," Mr. Holland insisted. "I've got them. Let's go."

The drive to the hospital was tense and mostly silent, and when they stepped into the ER, everything seemed far too bright, and too loud. They found Barb with directions from the triage nurse that pointed them to a curtained-off bed. Nancy wasn't sure if she was allowed to be back there, but no one told her to hang back, even when Karen told Nancy, "I'll be here in the waiting room."

On the other side of the curtain, a doctor was putting stitches in Barb's shoulder, but she otherwise looked okay, and she assured her parents, "I'm fine. I'm okay. I'll be okay."

Nancy still wasn't sure if she was wanted, but she didn't want to go, either. After finishing the stitches, the doctor asked to speak to Barb's parents about the insurance information, so Nancy spoke up, saying, "I'll stay with Barb while you get everything sorted out."

"Oh, Nancy," Mrs. Holland said, pulling her into a tight hug. "You're such a good friend."

Nancy didn't feel very much like a good friend at that moment, but when Barb's parents left, Barb gave her a sad smile and let Nancy hold her hand. "I'm so sorry this happened to you," Nancy said, pulling a swiveling stool closer to the hospital bed and sitting on it, still holding Barb's hand.

"Yeah, it sucks," Barb said, sighing. "I guess it's my fault for sneaking out of the house."

"You _snuck out_?" Nancy asked, more than a little scandalized. For how closely Nancy had always followed the rules, Barb was even more adherent to them. It was one of those things that made Barb "uncool" to the other kids, but it had always made Nancy feel safe around Barb. It made Nancy trust Barb, completely, and so far, her trust had never been broken.

Nancy felt kind of sad that Barb obviously didn't trust Nancy in return, if she hadn't told Nancy about Robin.

Barb sniffled, and Nancy dug through her purse, pulling out a clean tissue and handing it to her. With a nod, Barb said, "Yeah. I snuck out. Robin and I…"

She looked up, meeting Nancy's eyes. 

"You like her," Nancy said, keeping her voice gentle, and encouraging. With a smile that Barb returned, Nancy insisted, "I'm happy for you."

Barb nodded, a few tears rolling down her cheeks. "We were just hanging out, really. Just listening to some music, sitting on the hood of my car, when…"

A sob broke Barb's voice, and Nancy felt her own sympathetic tears start to fall. She stood up and pulled Barb into a tight hug, being careful of her injured shoulder. 

Her face pressed against Nancy's coat, Barb said, "Robin was _so_ brave, Nancy. She kicked it, right in the… well, I'm not exactly sure it _had_ a face." Shaking her head and pulling away, Barb mumbled, "That's probably just the trauma. Making me talk crazy. God, why did this have to happen _today_? On top of this…" she pointed to her shoulder, "and Robin almost dying, I've got, like, the _worst_ cramps."

"Hey." Leaning over to catch Barb's gaze, Nancy wiped one of her tears away and told Barb, "I've _seen_ it. The monster without a face. Out in the woods. It came _this close_ to eating me. You're not crazy. Cramps or no cramps."

A deep furrow between her brows, Barb opened her mouth, but her parents came back in before Barb could ask her question.

While Mrs. Holland cuddled Barb and Mr. Holland looked on adoringly, Nancy asked, "Has anyone told Robin's parents?"

Barb nodded. "They're here. I called them first." She gave her mom a regretful look, but Mrs. Holland just shook her head and kissed Barb's temple in an obvious display of forgiveness. Barb continued, "I think they're in the surgery waiting room. Robin's leg was pretty wrecked. I thought…" Barb's face contorted and a sob came out of her. "I thought she'd bled to death on the drive here."

"You got her here," Nancy insisted, putting her hand on Barb's leg and squeezing gently. She made sure Barb's gaze met hers before telling Barb very clearly, "You did a good job, getting her to someone who could help. You did good."

"So good, baby," Mr. Holland agreed, putting his arms around his wife and his daughter.

Suddenly, Nancy felt superfluous. She patted Barb's leg again and said, "I'll come by tomorrow to check on you."

Barb nodded, still being cuddled by her parents, who didn't seem to care one bit that their daughter had broken the rules. Nancy hoped that wouldn't change when they realized Barb liked Robin as more than a friend. They wouldn't go so far as to kick her out, would they? 

Nancy made a promise to herself not to let them. She wasn't quite sure how she was going to exert authority over people her parents' ages, but in the back of her mind, Nancy knew there had to be a way to do it. 

As she walked through the ER, toward the waiting room, she started feeling every minute of sleep she'd missed the night before. Part of her wanted to go check on Robin's condition, but by the time she found her mother, Karen said in her most no-nonsense voice, "Let's get you home and to bed."

"Yeah, okay," Nancy agreed, letting her mother steer her toward the parking lot. "Thanks for your help tonight, Mom." 

"Of course, sweetie," Karen replied, squeezing Nancy's shoulders a little tighter. "I've told Marsha to call when they need a ride home, but I'll take care of that. You should get as much sleep as you can."

Looking at her watch, Nancy noticed that it was just past two in the morning. Yes, she was tired, and yes, she wanted to get to her bed so she could sleep, but really? She wanted to go back to Jonathan's house and curl up next to him and Steve. 

She just had a little less than a year left of living in her parents' house. After that? She could spend every night with her boyfriends, couldn't she? If they still wanted her then?

Nancy thought she might have fallen asleep in the car during the drive home, but she jerked awake again, still plagued by the thought of a faceless monster leaping out in front of them, causing them to crash, the way Jonathan had. Causing Nancy to go missing, the way Will had.

They made it home unscathed and Nancy curled up in her bed, her coat still on and tugged tightly close against her body. The last thought she had before falling asleep was the fact that sharks could detect blood at one part per million. The deer had been bleeding. Jonathan, and maybe Will too, had been bleeding after the crash. Barb had cramps, which meant she was bleeding when the monster attacked. 

Maybe Lucas' part of the plan was _right_.

~*~

After being run off from basketball practice by Tommy and Billy, Steve had gone home, hoping his mom would be there, at least. There was so much shit going on, and Steve felt like he had a handle on _none_ of it. He didn't know why he still held out hope that his mother would help him fix things. She would probably just try to throw money at the problem, like she had when she hired Jonathan to tutor him. She'd probably do something like call the superintendent and get both Tommy and Billy suspended. And what good would that do? Steve knew Tommy, at least. He knew how long Tommy could hold a grudge. It was one of the reasons he'd never really done anything to get himself on Tommy's bad side until now. Tommy would know Steve had tattled to his mommy, and then he and Billy would beat Steve up. 

Or worse.

If Tommy found out he was _right_ about Steve's feelings for Jonathan, he might feel justified in beating Steve to _death_. Maybe Jonathan, too.

Man, they had to get out of this town. Graduation couldn't come soon enough.

Ultimately, when Steve found the note his mother had left, and realized both his parents were out of the picture for the next few days, he'd felt almost relieved. They weren't here to fuck things up. They weren't here to become victims of the demo-whatsit that Mike was calling the monster. They weren't here.

Steve had been figuring out for the last few years how to get by on his own. This was just the latest step in his education on that front.

Trial by fire. Fred Harrington's favorite method of teaching.

After changing his clothes and packing a bag, Steve drove toward Jonathan's house, following Mike and his friends on their bikes the last couple blocks.

Once the planning was over, and Joyce was going to let Steve stay, he brought his bag in from the car and set up camp in Jonathan's room. He'd slept here a couple times before, and he knew that Jonathan liked the side closer to the window. Nancy left with most of the kids, giving both him and Jonathan goodbye kisses, and then Steve was left with Jonathan, Jonathan's mom, and the psychic kid, Eleven.

Jonathan set the girl up on the couch in the living room. Steve wasn't quite sure the living room was entirely safe, but when he peeked his head into Will's room, and saw most of the house's lamps still sitting in a ring around the bed, Steve understood one of the reasons why Jonathan might have avoided that room. It was Jonathan and Joyce's link to the missing Byers, to Will, and Steve figured it must have felt almost sacred to them.

The girl didn't say much, so Steve didn't say much to her in return. He brushed his teeth in the bathroom and put his pajamas on in Jonathan's room, and when he laid down next to Jonathan, he asked, "If none of this crazy shit was going on, do you still think your mom would be letting me stay in your room?"

Jonathan shrugged. "I really don't know. When I told her about you and me, she said she wasn't mad, that she still loved me."

Steve turned toward Jonathan, brushing some of his hair out of his face. " _I_ love you."

With a smile, Jonathan nodded. He looked over at Steve and said, "I love you, too."

Steve gave Jonathan a kiss, but then just pressed his forehead against Jonathan's, enjoying being this close to him. "Tomorrow's going to be crazy, isn't it?"

"Yeah, probably," Jonathan replied, kissing Steve once more before burying his face against Steve's shoulder. 

Steve held Jonathan, and he felt the way Jonathan's breaths evened out as he fell asleep. He'd meant to do the same for Nancy the night before, but he'd fallen asleep on her bed, waiting for her to finish her shower. She'd fallen asleep for a couple hours in the early morning, but it couldn't have been enough.

Ow. And at least she didn't have a cast that dug into Steve's hip. 

Yeah, that wasn't going to work. 

Steve sat up a bit, rolling Jonathan the other way, toward the window, and spooning him from behind. Jonathan grumbled a little, and rearranged his casted arm, but he fell back asleep again a minute later. Steve wondered if Jonathan had slept at all the night before, or if he'd spent it watching over his mother. He would. He was always taking care of everyone else, instead of himself. 

Maybe that's what Steve would do after graduation -- dedicate his life to taking care of Jonathan, because they both knew he never prioritized taking care of himself. Steve pressed his nose to the back of Jonathan's neck and breathed him in. He figured that if he was really going to take care of Jonathan, maybe even give him the freedom to pursue photography without having to worry about starving, Steve was going to have to get a well-paying job.

That meant graduating high school. It meant getting into a college -- maybe junior college at first -- and picking a good career. Something he'd be good at. Maybe architecture, like Jonathan said. Darkly, he wondered if becoming successful and well-paid would make his parents proud. Nothing else he'd done to date had seemed to do it.

And it wasn't like being in love with a boy was going to have his parents singing his praises. They probably expected him to marry a girl who was "good enough" for the Harrington name. Buy a house, have a couple of kids, mess them up the same way his parents had messed him up, spend his money on cars and scotch and cigars, maintain a membership to the same country club they belonged to, maybe move somewhere a little more metropolitan than Hawkins.

Yeah, that's what his parents wanted for him.

Steve knew his grandparents had wanted the same for them. If Steve caved to the pressure, would everything go on and on like this? Harringtons miserable and phony generation after generation?

Or maybe Steve would cut them off before they got the chance to do the same to him. Maybe he'd move to a big city with his boyfriend, and their girlfriend, and live how they wanted to, without anyone to make them feel ashamed of falling in love. They'd make their own family, out of friends, and maybe siblings. And Steve's parents could die old and alone, bitter that Steve hadn't conformed to the mold they fashioned for him, not knowing how much happier he was here. Like this. Wrapped around Jonathan, listening to him breathe.

Now all they had to do was survive the next twenty-four hours.


	12. Sacrifice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nancy has a plan.

Jonathan felt like he'd been asleep for a _very_ long time when his bedroom door opened, clattering against the doorstop for a second before being closed again. He started, sitting up and squinting at how _bright_ his room was. Before he could even look over at the door to see who it was, they knelt on the foot of his bed. "I figured it out."

"Nancy?" Steve asked from beside Jonathan, obviously having been just as asleep as Jonathan before Nancy barged in.

Noticing the almost excited look on her face, all wide eyes and the hint of a smile, Jonathan asked, "What time is it?"

Before Nancy could reply, Steve sat up, pushing his hair away from his face. "What did you figure out?"

"The monster, the demogorgon," she explained, crawling up the bed a bit before sitting back on her heels, "it _is_ drawn to blood. It attacked Barb and Robin last night."

" _What_?" Jonathan asked, rubbing the last of the sleep out of his left eye. "Are they okay?"

"They had to give Robin a transfusion and do surgery to repair the damage," Nancy told them, "but the doctors think she's out of the woods now. Barb just has some stitches. They fought it off and drove away."

"Jesus," Steve muttered, shaking his head. "It almost killed that Robin girl and you still want to go after it?"

"Yes," Nancy insisted with a bright nod. 

Jonathan wasn't sure if he was impressed by her demeanor, or terrified. Or maybe a little turned on, too. Fuck, it was too early for this. "How much coffee have you had this morning?"

"Enough to burn a hole through my stomach," Nancy replied, her eyes still bright and clear. "Come on. Get up. I have a list of things we need to get."

"You have a plan," Jonathan realized, addressing Nancy but watching Steve get out of bed and stretch. 

"Yes." Nodding, Nancy reached forward and grabbed Jonathan's good hand, tugging lightly. "We might be able to lure it before nightfall, though I suspect it's more of a nocturnal hunter. After all, we've only ever seen it at night. It's lucky the sun goes down so early this time of year."

Letting Nancy pull him out of bed, Jonathan muttered, "Yeah. Lucky."

Nancy scrunched up her face at him for a second before going up onto her toes to kiss him. Though he appreciated the kiss, he really wished she would have given him the opportunity to brush his teeth first. As she bounced back down onto her heels, Nancy asked, "Do you need help getting dressed?"

"No," Jonathan insisted, really not ready to let her see him that… well, that _vulnerable_. "No, I'll be--"

"I got him," Steve assured Nancy, stumbling over toward them. He gave Nancy a kiss on the cheek and said, "Can you find us some breakfast?"

Nancy looked back and forth between the two of them, and Jonathan thought she was about to take offense. But then she gave a smile, more awkward than the others she'd shown them that morning, and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, of course. See you in a minute."

After Nancy left, closing the door behind her, Jonathan pulled Steve closer with his good arm, saying, “Thanks.”

“She is _very_ intense,” Steve murmured, kissing the edge of Jonathan’s jaw. 

Jonathan took a sharp breath, surprised by the depth of his body’s response to that kiss.

It had been a few days since he and Steve had done anything other than trade comforting kisses and sleep curled up together. Obviously, a lot had taken place in those few days. Dealing with Will's disappearance and Jonathan's concussion was much more important than fooling around. But Jonathan could admit that he missed it. 

But all of that would have to wait. They were going to get Will back today. Nancy had a plan.

"Help me get dressed?" Jonathan asked, pulling back so he could meet Steve's eyes. 

Steve gave him a smirk and said, "Only because I get to undress you first."

Jonathan chuckled a bit, letting Steve pull on his shirt until they got it over onto just his right arm. Steve held the sleeve open with both hands, pulling it off over his cast without stretching the fabric too much. "When all this is over," he said, going to his dresser and pulling out a clean t-shirt and some boxers, "we should take Nancy on a real date. Like, dinner and the movies."

Taking the shirt when Jonathan handed it to him, Steve frowned. "I've never really taken you on a real date, have I?"

"It's okay," Jonathan insisted. "I think it'll be easier to get away with as a group with Nancy. Just the two of us going somewhere… People will talk."

"Tommy and Billy are already talking," Steve said darkly as he threaded the sleeve of Jonathan's t-shirt over his cast. 

Concerned, Jonathan ducked his head into the shirt and then asked, "What do you mean? What do they know?"

Steve said with a sigh, "Well, they know I almost fainted in study hall when the cop told us you'd been in an accident. _Everyone_ saw."

Jonathan tried to picture Steve fainting and found he couldn't quite stretch his imagination that far. 

"Then yesterday…" Steve shook his head. "Nevermind." He pulled at the waistband of Jonathan's boxers. "Ready?"

"I can do this part," Jonathan said, catching the waistband with both thumbs and pushing them off, throwing them onto the dirty clothes pile. When he turned back toward Steve, he was holding the clean pair of boxers up and away from Jonathan. "Steve!"

"Un-uh," Steve replied with a grin. "Gotta pay the toll."

"What toll?" Jonathan almost went back to his dresser to get a different pair of underwear, but he figured Steve was trying to cheer him up or something, not that he was trying to be a jerk.

Steve said, "This one," and puckered his lips.

Jonathan rolled his eyes, but he pulled Steve into a kiss anyway. As they broke apart, he said, "Come on. I actually do need help with the jeans. I can't quite…" He stepped into the boxers that Steve held out for him. "Yesterday it took me, like ten minutes."

"Maybe I should just move in here and take care of you until your arm is better," Steve replied, pulling Jonathan closer by the hips and kissing him again. 

"Do you really want that, or do you just not want to be in your parents' house alone?" Jonathan asked, turning away from Steve to dig through his dirty clothes pile for a clean-enough pair of jeans. 

Steve didn't respond, and when Jonathan looked over at him, Steve's jaw was clenched and he was spacing out toward the corner of the room. 

Abandoning his quest for clothes, Jonathan took a step back toward Steve. “Sorry. I’m sorry, that was–”

“I could have been missing,” Steve said, sliding his eyes over to look at Jonathan. “I could have been taken by that monster, or killed by it, and my parents wouldn’t have missed me for…” He shrugged. “I don’t know _how_ long.”

Holding Steve close with his good arm, Jonathan pressed his face to Steve’s neck. “ _I_ would have missed you, Steve.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said, sounding as forlorn as Jonathan had ever heard him. 

Feeling fiercely protective all of a sudden, Jonathan grabbed Steve by the back of the head and made him meet Jonathan’s eyes. “Hey. Your parents have no idea what they’re missing. But I do. I know you.”

“Yeah,” Steve said, his eyes sliding away again. “I wish I could tell them about us, you know? I wish you and Nancy weren’t the only people I’m gonna have left once they find out.”

“After graduation,” Jonathan said, massaging the back of Steve’s neck, “we’re gonna find someplace better, and you’re gonna have a ton of friends who love you the way you are.”

“Instead of the way they want me to be?” Steve asked, a slight smile on the edge of his lips. “You know, I was only ever ‘King Steve’ because that’s what Tommy called me. He meant it as a joke, because I was always careful not to mess up the clothes my mom bought me. It kinda stuck after that.”

Jonathan sighed angrily. “You deserve friends who don’t make fun of you.”

"Yeah, I know," Steve said, ducking away from Jonathan's hold on him and heading for the laundry pile. He picked up one of the pairs of jeans and held them up. "These?"

"Sure," Jonathan replied, taking them and sitting down on the bed so he could start putting them on. "Thanks."

~*~

"This is the worst plan," Mike said, helping Steve load up their army supply store purchases into the trunk of Steve's car.

Steve hummed. "Well, it's your sister's plan, so take it up with her."

Steve thought Mike looked like he might do just that, but they finished loading the stuff instead. Nancy came out of the store then, saying, "They don't have fire extinguishers, but the guy said to check the hardware store."

With a sigh, Steve shrugged and said, "Alright."

As he was turning the key to start up the engine again, Nancy cried out, "Shit! It's Mom. Duck!"

She and Mike both ducked down. Steve almost did too, except he realized it didn't matter if Mrs. Wheeler saw him. She probably had no idea who he was, or that he was currently plotting with her kids to trap and kill a monster from… somewhere else.

Trying to act as casual as possible, Steve started the engine of his car and pulled out of the parking space, headed for the hardware store. Once the station wagon passed, Steve told them, "The coast is clear."

"What's she doing here in the middle of the day?" Mike asked, looking out the back window. 

Nancy said, "Probably running errands or something. She has a lot of time now that Holly started kindergarten."

Shaking his head, Mike told them, "I'm just glad we moved Eleven to the Byers house. Can you imagine the kind of shit we'd be in if Mom had _found_ her?"

“I’m still impressed Joyce agreed to hide her,” Steve said, putting on his blinker as he stopped at a stop sign. “With the shit she can do? Those guys from the lab _have_ to be looking for her.”

“We’ll worry about that after we get Will back," Nancy said as Steve pulled into the hardware store parking lot. "This plan is going to work."

Steve thought she sounded a lot like someone who was trying to psych themselves up for a rough game. Steve just hoped if anyone got killed, it was him. He didn't think he could live with the guilt of knowing he'd been there and hadn't been able to stop Jonathan, or Nancy, or any of the younger kids, from getting eaten. 

God, he had a really bad feeling about this.

~*~

"He's here?" Joyce asked Eleven. 

There were nine of them standing in the Byers' back yard, and the sun was getting low behind the trees. Nancy looked out over the trap they'd constructed, surveying the work. The entire back yard was ringed with Christmas lights, held up in the air by makeshift poles and trees where they could use them. There was a bear trap in the shed, and the back of the shed had some of its boards sawed off, so there was a hole big enough for any of them to crawl through and escape after luring the monster into the shed. As soon as the bear trap had sprung, the shed would be lit on fire, and the demogorgon would die.

That was the plan, anyway. Nancy had to admit that Mrs. Byers was being pretty cool about them burning down her shed. Maybe the possibility of getting her son back was motivation enough to approve a little property destruction.

Eleven nodded at Joyce. "He's in Castle Byers. He's getting tired. Cold."

"Does he know what he has to do?" Nancy asked her, watching El's face carefully.

She gave another nod. "Follow the demogorgon through its portal."

"With _out_ getting eaten," Mike insisted, coming to stand next to them.

From beside her, Jonathan sighed. "We still haven't agreed on who's going to lure the demogorgon."

"I'll do it," Joyce said.

"No," Nancy told her. "We need you to help Will find the portal. He can hear _you_ and El, and El's going to be a little busy."

Dustin said, "I'll do i--"

"No, _I'll_ do it," Lucas insisted. "I can jump higher than you."

"No, I can't have you boys acting as bait," Joyce told them, holding up a finger when Mike opened his mouth, looking like he was going to argue. "No."

Nancy opened her mouth, about to say that it was her plan, so she should do it, but Steve beat her to the punch. 

"I'll do it," he told them. "Unless the rest of you have been in training for varsity sports all year, I'm the fastest. And I'm the best jumper. It's gotta be me."

The pained look on Jonathan's face made Nancy's chest ache in sympathy. Looking at the shotgun she had at her side, she knew what she had to do. "We'll both do it," she told Steve. "You'll leave the blood trail, I'll shoot it to get its attention. Jonathan will be waiting with the lighter."

"Aw, come _on_ ," Mike said. "Jonathan's got a broken arm. At least let me do the lighter!"

Nancy rounded on her brother. "Are you an adult?"

Mike stuck his chin out at her defiantly, but he still said, "No."

"No, you aren't," Nancy said, using a tone not unlike their mother's. "I can't let you be anywhere near that monster when it comes. Help El and Mrs. Byers get Will back through the portal. Leave the monster hunting to us."

"You're only three years older than me," Mike insisted, enough like a petulant child that Nancy couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at him. He gave an annoyed huff, but said, "Fine! Fine. We're on Will duty. Aye-aye, Captain."

Nancy knew she was going to have to kick his ass later for that quip, but now was not the time. Now it was time to put the plan into action.

"Okay," she said, looking around at the others. "Steve, go get the blood from the fridge. Jonathan, let's pick out your hiding place. All the rest of you?" Nancy pointed toward the woods. "Castle Byers. Now."

"Come on, kids," Joyce said, holding an axe in one hand and a flashlight in the other. "Let's go."

As they left, Jonathan murmured, "My _hiding_ place? Really?"

"Oh, you want to shoot the gun?" Nancy asked, holding it out to him, but giving him a smile so he would know it was a joke. After the other day, in the woods with that deer, it was obvious that Jonathan couldn't operate the shotgun properly with that cast on his arm. Lighting a lighter, though? He could definitely do that.

Jonathan gave her a little smirk before stepping closer, leaning his forehead against the side of hers. "Promise me you'll be careful."

"I'll be careful," she told him. "I promise." Looking at the house, where Steve was just returning to the back door with a plastic container full of blood from the butcher shop, she told Jonathan, "I'll do everything I can to make sure he makes it through this."

"So _both_ of you make it through this," Jonathan said, backing up enough to stare into her eyes.

Under Jonathan's weighty gaze, Nancy nodded. "We'll be okay. This is a good plan. It's going to work."

"I don't know if I'd say _good_ ," he said, picking up the bat he and Steve had driven nails through to make it into a deadly weapon, "but it's the best we've got."

"Yeah," Nancy agreed, trying to think of anything that could go wrong. Honestly, too many variables crossed her mind. How was she supposed to keep track of all of them?

When he approached them, Jonathan handed Steve the bat. “Don’t think these heroics are gonna get you out of any studying this weekend,” Jonathan warned Steve. 

“Yeah, yeah. I got it,” Steve replied, giving Jonathan a quick kiss. 

Nodding at them, Nancy said, "Let's get this started."

With a shrug, Steve set down the bat and unscrewed the lid off the jar in his hands. Holding it out in front of himself and nodding down at the lawn, Steve asked, "You think I can just pour it here?"

"Some of it," Nancy agreed. "We should save some. Just in case."

Nancy didn't want to elaborate in case of _what_ , and luckily, neither of them asked. Steve poured out some of the blood, trailing it toward the shed, but stopping a few feet in front of it. With a grimace, he screwed the cap back on and set it next to the shed. 

"I can't believe the butcher shop just _sells_ this shit," he said, making another face as he took a few steps back and picked up the bat. He joined Nancy and Jonathan, asking them, "Now what?"

"Now, we wait," Jonathan said grimly, fiddling with the lighter in his hand. 

Nothing happened for a few minutes, so Nancy sighed and sat down, the shotgun still in easy reach. Looking up at the boys, Nancy realized that it hadn't even been a week since she first kissed them. The next night would be the one-week anniversary. 

So much had happened, it seemed a lot longer than that. She gave a morose little chuckle, and then said, "I can't believe just a week ago, I was so obsessed with _homework_ and _grades_. That stuff doesn't seem nearly as critical now."

"Yeah," Jonathan said, crouching down next to her. "I seem to remember you saying something about Notre Dame?"

Her cheeks getting warm, Nancy wondered just how intense she'd come off as when she crashed his Friday night, wanting to do homework. "Yeah," she said, watching as Steve came over to stand near them. "I mean, that's the goal. I'm applying to a bunch of safety schools, too."

Nodding, Jonathan said, "Indiana University has a South Bend campus. That's right by Notre Dame."

"Yeah, I guess it is," Nancy said, but she couldn't help the smile on her face. Maybe Jonathan was just thinking out loud, but it sounded like he was thinking about how to end up close to her next year. "You know, Purdue has a joint campus with IU in Indianapolis. That could be an option."

"It could be," Jonathan said, not really looking at her, but the Christmas lights were bright enough that she could see the little smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"What do you think the chances are I get into a school that actually teaches architecture?" Steve asked them. 

Jonathan shrugged. "You could always go to junior college first. Make some good grades there, and transfer over."

"Junior college?" Steve asked, and his tone was more curious than anything else.

Jonathan nodded up at him, reaching out with his good arm to take Steve's hand. "Depending on scholarships, I might end up doing the same thing. Tuition at junior colleges is so much cheaper."

Steve smiled at Jonathan. "That sounds alright."

Okay, Nancy just had to ask, "Are you guys planning on ending up in the same place next year?"

"Yes," Steve said without hesitation. But then he winced and watched as Jonathan stood up next to him.

Jonathan's face was soft and Nancy thought he looked beautiful under the Christmas lights. In a quiet voice, he asked Steve, "Really? Are you sure?"

Steve smiled at him and said, “Yeah,” so earnestly that Nancy felt her chest get tight with emotion for them. “I’m in this, Jonathan. For as long as–”

Nancy was about to ask why Steve had stopped, but then the lights flickered. “The lights!” She jumped up to standing, making sure she had a good grip on the gun. “Jonathan, get back!”

“Be careful,” he said as he passed her, pausing just long enough to squeeze her left shoulder. “I’ll be ready.”

“Okay.”

Steve stood at Nancy’s right, his back mostly toward her, spiked bat raised in the air. 

Nancy felt horribly sick with nerves, her heart pounding, her breath coming in sharp, unsteady gasps. “Where is it?” she asked, sweeping to the left and putting her back to Steve. “Do you see it?”

“No!” Steve shouted, his back solid and warm against hers. 

God, Nancy hoped Jonathan was hidden well enough. If they lured it here and it went after _him_? Nancy would never forgive herself. She had a feeling Steve wouldn’t forgive her either. 

“There!” Steve cried, and Nancy looked over to where he was pointing. 

The outer wall of the house had a growing dark patch on it, that sprouted tendrils and grew larger and larger, until something pushed its way through. The solid house siding stretched and deformed, like it suddenly _wasn’t_ solid, and then that stretched fabric of the universe began to tear.

Nancy shuddered, goosebumps rising on her neck and arms. “It’s coming,” she said, raising her gun and aiming at the demogorgon.

“Back up,” Steve said, using his left hand to tug on her right shoulder. “Let’s get to the door of the shed.”

Nancy nodded, carefully stepping backward, shoulder-to-arm with Steve, her gun raised and ready to fire. As soon as the demogorgon stepped through the portal it had made and unfurled itself, Nancy aimed at center mass and pulled the trigger. 

The recoil drove the butt of the gun back against Nancy’s shoulder, but she barely felt it, already pumping the fore-end and aiming again. The demogorgon roared and started moving toward them. Nancy shot it again. 

The pellets hit its skin, Nancy knew they did, but it didn’t seem injured or bleeding or anything, just pissed off. It kept moving forward. Screaming.

Nancy couldn’t help but scream back a little. She shot it a third time before Steve tugged on her, saying, “Go, go, go!”

Nancy turned and went into the shed, jumping over the bear trap and turning, scooting out the hole at the back feet first, watching as Steve hesitated a few more seconds before following her. 

Nancy got out of the way, but looked back through the hole when Steve cried out, “C’mon, ugly! C’mere!”

He actually took a swing and hit it, ducked under its clawed hand, and hit it again before retreating, somehow hurdling over the bear trap backwards. He slid out the hole and Nancy stuck the gun back through, yelling, “Come on, you piece of shit!

Another shot angered it enough that it stepped into the shed, reached for her, and put its foot in the trap. 

“It’s in!” Nancy called out, scrambling away from the shed. “Light it!”

Jonathan lit the lighter and dropped it into the pool of gasoline next to the shed. A second later, the whole shed went up in flames. 

The monster inside _screamed_. The sound made Nancy's skin crawl, but there was also a sense of satisfaction simmering low in her gut. _Take that, asshole_.

And then it stopped screaming. 

“Is that it?” Nancy asked the others. 

“I dunno,” Steve said, handing the bat to Jonathan and picking up the fire extinguisher. 

As Nancy followed Steve around the building, she loaded new shells from her pocket into the shotgun.

By the time Steve got the fire in the shed put out, Jonathan was at Nancy's shoulder, eyes wide as he pointed his flashlight into the shed. Nancy was still looking at him when he gasped, "No!"

Following his line of sight, Nancy looked into the shed. As the remnants of the fire extinguisher cloud fell out of the air, it became apparent that there was no charred body in the shed. Nancy got closer and noted that there was some sort of tissue left behind -- still bubbling with heat coming off the bear trap -- but that was it.

"Where did it go?" Nancy asked, looking back at Jonathan, and at Steve. "Where the hell did it go?"

A sharp scream from the woods made all three of them turn their heads.

Darkly, Steve said, "I think I know," right before taking off into the woods. Nancy followed him, Jonathan right on her heels.

~*~

Steve's breaths were fast and deep as he ran into the dark woods. He should have brought a flashlight, but there was a little bit of twilight left, and the sky was clearer than it had been all week. It wasn't hard to follow the screams and shouts, and when he found the kids, Eleven was on the ground, the demogorgon pressing down on her chest. Mike was calling out to El, while Lucas and Dustin threw whatever they could find at the monster. Max and Joyce were over at the fort, doing _something_ , but Steve's main concern was Eleven. They needed to keep her alive, above all else.

"Get off her, you freak!" Steve cried, reeling back and putting his whole body into the swing he took at the monster, following through as best he could. The impact made his hands feel kind of numb, but he managed to hit the monster off of El well enough that a second swing meant Mike and Lucas could pull El free.

Nancy got very close to him before firing her shotgun, and Steve winced at the deafening sound. He almost asked her why she was crowding him, but then he realized she probably didn't want to hit him with stray buckshot. God, she was so smart.

After a second blast, which made the monster stumble, but didn't really seem to injure it, Steve told Nancy, "I'm going back in."

"Got it," Nancy said, moving back behind Steve far enough that he wasn't going to hit her with his back swing. 

The monster was big, and it was strong, but it was also dumb as hell, because it stepped right into the path of Steve's next swing. The blow made the monster stagger (it made Steve stagger a little bit too), and it roared at him, but Steve knew he didn't have any other choices. He had to hit it again.

Steve hit the monster again, and again, driving it away from the kids, away from Joyce and Jonathan and Nancy. He took a swing and almost caught him, but Steve noticed its arm moving and ducked just in time. God, he wasn't going to be that lucky forever. 

Desperate to know that this was going to come to an end before he tired, Steve called back over his shoulder, "What's the plan?"

The only voice he heard was the monster's otherworldly growl, and then Eleven's serious, "No."

Steve was about to ask what the hell, "No," meant, but then the monster flew back away from him. Its back slammed into the trunk of a large tree, its arms bending backward, its chest exposed. 

Oh. Right. Eleven had powers.

Good.

Steve caught his breath as well as he could, keeping his eyes on the monster. He knew Eleven didn't have unlimited powers. Nancy and Jonathan said that she'd passed out for a few hours after contacting Will the day before. How long could she keep this up?

What was the end game?

How many of them would get out of here alive?

Sparing a glance back at the rest of the group, Steve saw Joyce and Mike pulling someone through an open portal. 

That had to be Will, right? They had him? 

Relieved, Steve turned his attention back to the monster. Maybe if El held it down, he'd be able to pummel its head into nothing. It would stop attacking them then, wouldn't it? What if its brain was somewhere other than its head? After all, it didn't exactly have a face.

Before Steve could think himself too far down that pathway, El started screaming. The lights all the way up at the house flickered, and so did the flashlight Nancy was holding.

The sound of El's screaming sounded louder than a 14 year old kid should have been able to make. It pierced his eardrums and made his head ache, but Steve didn't dare cover his ears, sure that he was going to need his hands free to swing the bat at least a few more times.

Except, as El's scream built to a crescendo, the monster started to -- to _fall apart_. Flakes of its flesh broke off and floated away, the light from Nancy's flashlight building and building until even the light reflecting off the remnants of the monster was difficult to look at.

Then, with a pop, there was darkness.

Steve couldn't see the monster, if there was any of it left. He couldn't see El. He could barely hear Nancy when she grabbed him, asking him something. 

He nodded anyway, following her when she went past Mike and stumbled over to Jonathan. Joyce was there. And… and so was Will. 

They'd done it.

They'd brought Will home.

He was laying in his mother's arms, looking gaunt and pale, especially in the moonlight, but _alive_.

Steve knew this moment was important for Jonathan to be with his mother and his brother, but Steve couldn't help but put his hand on Jonathan's back, reassuring himself that Jonathan was still real, still solid, still alive. Nancy wrapped her arms around Steve, and he held her close with his free arm, his bat lying forgotten on the forest floor somewhere between where the monster had been and where he was standing, next to the hand-made fort.

When he could hear again, Steve noticed that Mike was crying. He was holding onto Lucas and Dustin, but he was definitely crying. About what? What could he -- 

Oh.

"Where's El?" Steve asked Nancy. She'd been back a little further. Maybe she'd gotten a better look at what had happened.

Nancy shook her head. "I don't know. I think she…"

"She sacrificed herself," Jonathan said, sniffling and pushing at his nose with his good hand. "She helped us get Will back, and she took the demogorgon down with her."

"Oh."

Nancy pulled her arms from around Steve and went over to Mike, kneeling down on the forest floor next to him, wrapping her arms around him. Steve noticed that all the kids were crying, hugging Mike and Nancy, and being together.

"We should get Will to the hospital," Joyce said, struggling to stand up with the boy in her arms. 

Steve knew that Jonathan wanted to help her, but with his broken arm, he wasn't going to be able to bear the weight. "I'll carry him," Steve offered, kneeling down next to Joyce and Will. "If that's okay with you guys?"

Will nodded, reaching for Steve, and Joyce gave a surprised, and _wet_ chuckle. "Yeah, okay. Let's go."

~*~

When Jonathan ran toward the screaming in the woods, he was terrified the monster had taken someone from him. If it took Joyce, Jonathan had no idea what he would do. How was he supposed to get along in this world all alone? 

When he got there and found it was Eleven the monster was about to kill, he all but panicked. He couldn't let the monster take her. Not when she'd done everything to help his family, at great expense to herself. 

It wasn't _fair_.

But he didn't know how to get the monster off of her. 

He was searching the forest floor for a stick big enough to be any good when Steve ran up and hit the demogorgon off of El. Steve beat it back long enough for El to get up and regroup. Jonathan busied himself with helping his brother get through the portal in the wall of Castle Byers, because he couldn't watch Steve get killed. He wasn't going to be able to handle it.

It turned out he didn't have to. Instead, he had to watch Eleven tear herself to pieces to stop the demogorgon from hurting people she'd known for only two days. His heart broke for her, and for Mike, but a large part of him was thankful that it was El who was gone, and not Steve. He knew that made him selfish, that it made him a bad person, but he felt it just the same.

Steve carried Will toward the house, pausing long enough to ask Nancy, "Do you have this? Mike and the others?"

Nodding Steve, and then at Jonathan, who was following behind him, Nancy said, "Yeah. I've got this. We'll be okay."

Jonathan took a second to crouch down next to Nancy, giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek, whispering, "Thank you," into her ear before catching up to his family. 

The lights in the house were dark - the fuses probably blown by whatever it was Eleven had done, but as Jonathan mounted the last of the slope up toward the house, he started seeing red and blue lights from beyond the house. Once they got into and then through the house, it was obvious that the source of the lights was a police car. No, several police cars.

"What now?" Joyce muttered, opening the front door and gesturing Steve to follow her. Jonathan went with them, closing the door behind them. Joyce led them to Steve’s car, rather than her own. Jonathan had heard her refer to her car as a death trap before. She used to drive the car that Jonathan had crashed on Sunday, but had given it to Jonathan when he started driving. 

Jonathan could understand her hesitance to rely on it now, when Steve’s expensive car was objectively safer. 

“Here, I’m gonna put you down for a second,” Steve said to Will, setting him down on his feet, but leaning against the car while Steve got his keys out of his pocket. 

The wailing grew louder, and the headlights of the incoming police cars created over the hill just down the road from them. Jonathan was still watching them come when Steve got the back driver’s side door open. Joyce helped Will sit down in Steve’s car. 

The chief’s truck pulled up, lights flashing but siren off. When he got out of the truck, Joyce went over to him, saying, "I have to tell you something."

"Joyce," the chief said, a warning in his voice. "Listen to me."

"But--"

"No, _listen_ ," he said, and Jonathan hated the fact that Hopper was the one who wasn't listening. "The state troopers found a body in the quarry. I'm sorry, but… it's Will. They found Will's body."

"What?" Jonathan couldn't help but cry out. He looked down at Will, sitting in the back of Steve's car, shivering.

With a stern look on his face as the other cop cars pulled up, Chief Hopper said, "I know it's difficult news to hear…"

Jonathan heard a tiny little laugh, and when he looked down, Will was smiling broadly, despite his condition. Jonathan couldn't help but laugh a little bit, too. 

Hopper frowned, brushing off Joyce again as he stomped toward Jonathan. "I've seen the body! How can you think this is--"

Hopper stopped short when Jonathan stepped away from the open door to reveal Will sitting there. Will gave Hopper a weak little wave.

From behind Hopper, Joyce said, "Will came home. He was lost in the woods, weren't you, sweetheart?"

Will nodded. "Yeah. Very lost, but I heard you calling."

Joyce gave him a wet smile and pushed past Jonathan to duck into the car and wrap her arms around Will again.

Hopper's mouth hung open with disbelief, until he muttered, "But I _saw_ the body."

"I don't know whose body you found," Jonathan said, saddened to realize some other kid must have died, "but it wasn't Will."

"Yeah, I guess not."

From next to the driver's seat, Steve asked, "Should we…? I mean, I think we should go. To the hospital."

"Yes, let's do that," Joyce said, giving Will one last kiss on his temple before stepping back and closing his door. She looked over at Hopper, then pointed at the line of police cars heading down the dirt road toward the paved street a quarter mile down and said, "You wanna get your guys to clear us a path?"

"Sure," Hopper said, heading to his truck. 

Jonathan followed his mom around to the other side of Steve's car, getting in the front passenger seat after she got in back, sitting next to Will. As they drove past all the cop cars, Jonathan said, "Hopper looked like he'd seen a ghost."

"Not a ghost," Will insisted. "I promise."

Shaking his head, Jonathan said, "No. Just makes me wonder _who_ made him think they'd found your body. And _why_."

Clearing his throat, Will's voice was scratchy when he asked, "Maybe it has something to do with that girl? The one who visited me?"

"She _did_ say bad men were after her," Steve said as he pulled onto the paved road headed into town.

Looking back over his shoulder, Jonathan asked, "Do you think Nancy and the kids will be alright?"

"Nancy will take care of them," Steve said, reaching over and putting his hand on Jonathan's knee. He only kept it there for a second, but it was _right in front_ of Jonathan's mother and his brother!

Granted, they both _knew_ Jonathan was dating Steve, but still. It wasn't a step Jonathan thought Steve would be taking anytime soon. It made Jonathan smile as he turned toward the front of the car, watching the lit-up streets of Hawkins fly by as they headed for the hospital.


	13. The date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Jonathan take Nancy on a real date.

By the time Nancy got her brother and his friends back up to the Byers house, there were cops all over it. "Miss," one of them said, his hand on the gun at his belt. "I'm going to have to ask you to put that weapon down."

Rolling her eyes and scoffing, Nancy set the shotgun down on the ground. "I don't know if you've heard, but there's bears out in those woods."

The Chief came out of the house, asking, "What were you kids doing back there?"

Nancy didn't know what story the others might have told the cops, but Lucas spoke before she could. "We were looking for Will. Did you guys see that we found him?"

Hopper looked at them with narrowed eyes for a long moment before nodding. "Yeah, yeah. We saw them. They said Will found his way back home?"

"Yes," Nancy said, as confidently as she could. "Yes, he did. We were tired from--"

"From all the searching," Mike broke in, and Nancy wondered if the chief could tell Mike's eyes were red. 

Nodding, Nancy said, "Right. So we let the others hurry ahead of us. You know, so they could get Will someplace to warm up."

"They've gone to the hospital," he told them, holding up a hand when Max tried to walk past him. "Hey. Wait a second. Have any of you kids seen another kid out in the woods? Missing girl? About your age? Short hair?"

Shaking her head, Nancy looked over at her brother and his friends. Most of them had good poker faces, but Dustin looked like he was struggling to keep the secret in. "No," Nancy said quickly, before Dustin could say anything. "No, we haven't seen anyone else. Just Will."

Hopper gave a thoughtful hum before saying, "I suppose you kids should be getting home. It's a school night, after all."

"I'll drive them," Nancy told him. "My car's just up front."

As she walked past him, Hopper stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Your weapon? Miss…?"

"Wheeler," she said. "Nancy Wheeler. And that gun belongs to the Byers. They used to keep it in the shed," Nancy pointed. "But we had a little fire earlier. Maybe you guys can keep it safe until Joyce comes home?"

The Chief rolled his eyes, but he said, "Sure. Go on. Get out of here."

Nancy didn't have to be told twice.

She didn't even bother going into the house, just went around it, leading the kids to her car. One of the police officers looked like he was going to stop them, but the chief, shotgun in hand, called from behind them, "No. Let 'em go. It's a school night."

After they were in the car, Mike asked her, "Are you really going to make us go home?"

"No," Nancy said, starting the engine. "But I am going to make you call your parents from the hospital."

"Fair enough," Max said.

From the seat behind her, Dustin said, "See, Mike? I told you your sister was cool."

Nancy expected her brother to argue, but he said in a soft voice, "Yeah. Pretty cool."

It was a judgement from a couple of fourteen-year-olds, but Nancy would take it. Bringing them all to the hospital was more than a little chaotic, but she noticed the way Mike held onto Will like he would never let him go. Nancy couldn't imagine depriving her brother of this. Not when he'd had to witness what had happened to Eleven.

"You okay?" Jonathan said from beside Nancy, folding his left hand into her right one.

Squeezing his hand, Nancy said, "Yeah. I'm good. Just… sorry about El."

"I can't believe she did that," Steve said, joining them from the door of Will's hospital room. He handed Joyce a can of soda and then came back to stand on Nancy's left side. "Doesn't seem right. Poor kid never got to be a _kid_. And then she's just… _gone._ "

Looking over at Steve, Nancy put her left hand in his right one. "It isn't fair," Nancy agreed, leaning closer to Steve and resting her temple against his shoulder. "Nothing about this world seems fair right now." 

"I know what you mean," Steve said, turning his head to kiss Nancy's hair. "I'm not exactly sure I can show my face in school again."

"Why's that?" Jonathan asked, looking at Steve over Nancy's head. "What happened?"

"Just… the assholes I used to be friends with," Steve told him. 

"But if you don't graduate, how are you going to become an architect?" Nancy asked, grinning when Steve looked at her in surprise. "I think I know a couple people who can help you study."

With a sly smile, Steve said, "You know, I really like the way you guys study."

Nancy couldn't help but laugh. Except, when she looked out into the hallway and saw her mother coming, Nancy pulled her hands away from the both of them.

Nancy met her mother at the door, and wasn't very surprised when Karen pulled her into a tight hug. "Second night in a row at the hospital," Karen said, giving a soft tut. "What the hell is going on around here lately?"

"I don't know, Mom," Nancy said, letting go when Karen pulled back and started heading for Mike. Turning toward Steve and Jonathan, Nancy told them, "I have a feeling I'm going to have to go home soon."

"Yeah," Jonathan said, while Steve leaned in, pressing a quick kiss on her cheek. "We'll talk to you tomorrow, right?"

"Definitely," Nancy replied, looking over at where Karen was talking to Joyce. "I have a feeling I'm going to have to go to school in the morning."

"I should probably go, too," Steve said with a sigh. Then a slight smile jumped onto his face and he leaned closer to Nancy, whispering in her ear, "I could use a fierce fighter like you watching my back at school, Nancy Wheeler."

"Any time," she told him, checking to make sure her mom wasn't watching before she pressed a quick kiss to his lips. She kissed Jonathan, too, smiling at him and getting his smile back in turn. "Any chance you're going to join us at school tomorrow?"

Looking over at his mom and brother, Jonathan said, "I don't know. If I don't see you at school, I'll call. Okay?"

The assurance settled the anxious part of Nancy's mind telling her that now that things could get back to normal, maybe Jonathan and Steve wouldn't still want her. So far, that wasn't the case. "Okay," she said, giving Jonathan another quick kiss.

"Nancy," Karen said, and Nancy realized she'd forgot to make sure her mother hadn't been watching.

With the most innocent smile she could muster, Nancy turned and faced her mother. "Yes?"

Karen rolled her eyes and said, "Say goodnight to your boyfriend. It's time for us to leave."

"Goodnight," Nancy said to Jonathan, but she gave Steve a wink, too. He grinned back at her as she left.

When Mike elected to ride home in Nancy's car, instead of their mother's, Karen was surprised, but Nancy wasn't. After they pulled out of the parking lot, Karen right behind them, Nancy told Mike, "I wish you would have been able to keep both of them."

"Yeah," Mike said with a sigh, looking out the window. "I wish that too." He was silent for a moment before he said, "El was… she was really special, wasn't she?"

"She was," Nancy agreed. Then she remembered something from the other day. "Did you give Will that letter?"

Mike shook his head. "It's at home. I'll give it to him tomorrow." 

"Okay," Nancy said, leaving it at that. She was a little curious about what the letter said, but she knew it wasn't her place to ask, just like she really didn't want Mike asking how the hell she was going to get away with having two boyfriends. For now, the answer was just… hope no one noticed.

Sure, high school was a cesspool of gossip and everyone in everyone else's business, but if Barb got away with dating Robin and no one noticed, maybe Nancy could do the same with Steve and Jonathan. She could only hope.

~*~

Joyce made Steve go home when it got late, even though she and Jonathan were going to stay in the hospital with Will. Steve got it. He wasn't their family.

A little voice in his head said, " _Not yet_ ," and he tried not to hope too hard that the voice would be right.

When he got home, his dad's car was back in the garage. Huh. Steve wasn't even sure what day it was. Thursday, maybe? He tried to remember if his mother's note had said what day they were coming home, but he couldn't.

Steve didn't bother to try to sneak in. His parents were probably asleep, anyway.

Except, the light in the dining room was on, and when Steve went over there, he found his father sitting at the table, paging through stacks of papers. "Hey." 

Fred looked up at Steve over his reading glasses. "It's a little late for you to be getting home on a school night, isn't it?"

"Will Byers was missing. We found him in the woods tonight," Steve explained.

"Hmm," Fred replied, and Steve wondered if he'd expected Steve to say something stupid, like he was out with friends and lost track of time. Then he took a breath in that way Steve knew something unpleasant was coming his way. "Your coach called. Left a message. He said you've missed practice a few days in a row."

Steve sighed. He pulled out the chair across from his father and sat down in it. Not meeting Fred's eye, Steve told him, "Two guys on the team all but threatened to kill me. I figured I valued my life more than playing on a team that isn't going to get me anywhere I want to be."

"And where is it?" Fred asked, a deep frown sitting underneath his bushy mustache. "Where do you want to be?"

"I'm gonna apply to some junior colleges," Steve said, the plan having coalesced in his mind over the past few days. "And I'm gonna do well enough to get into an architecture program at a bigger college. IU, maybe."

"State school?" Fred asked, though he didn't look as disappointed in Steve as expected. In fact, he might have looked a little impressed. "Which teammates of yours have been giving you problems?"

Suspiciously, Steve asked, "Why? What are you going to do?"

Shrugging, Fred put his reading glasses down on the table and sat back in his chair. "Perhaps I'll make it clear to their parents that death threats have no place in civil society."

"You mean you're gonna pay them off to keep their kids away from me?" Steve guessed. He shook his head. "Don't. It's not worth the trouble. Or the money. Besides," Steve pushed away from the table and stood up, "I've got to learn to take care of myself sooner or later." 

He almost put a dig in about them leaving town without telling him first, but it didn't seem worth it. Not anymore. Not after what Steve had seen and done this past week. 

He'd gone up against an honest-to-god monster with a homemade weapon and his two favorite people watching his back. He figured most everything else was small potatoes compared to that.

~*~

"Are you _sure_ you don't need me to stay?" Jonathan asked his mother, probably for the tenth time. It was Saturday evening, and Will had just come home from the hospital that morning. They'd treated him for hypothermia and dehydration and he'd bounced back more quickly that anyone had expected. Jonathan had yet to ask his brother what it had been like in that place, but he figured it would be best to give it some time, maybe let Will come to him when he was ready.

Joyce gave an exasperated sigh, but smiled at Jonathan. "No, no. We're fine. Bob is coming soon. Mike is still here, and you deserve to have a little fun."

"Okay," Jonathan said, laughing when Joyce caught him and pressed kisses to his cheek. "Mom!"

"Go, go. Have a nice night! Try to be home by midnight," she said, her voice suddenly serious. "I can't sit up, thinking--"

"I'll be home," Jonathan assured her, knowing he was going to have to do a lot of convincing to get Nancy or Steve to actually _drive_ him home when it was time, but he’d make it happen. 

When Jonathan opened the door to head out, Bob was standing there, his hand raised like he’d been about to knock. “Oh, Jonathan! Hello! I think your mom is expecting me.”

Jonathan couldn’t help but chuckle and open the door wider. “Come on in. I’m headed out.”

“Out? You got your job back?” Bob asked him, trying to “make an effort.” After all of Lonnie’s bullshit, a lot of Bob’s behavior struck Jonathan as weird, or inexplicable. But he wasn’t a bad guy, and Jonathan figured his mom deserved to be happy. 

“No,” Jonathan said, seeing headlights coming up the dirt road. “I’ve got a date.”

He left before he could give Bob the chance to ask any awkward questions about his date, like who was going to be there, and where they were going.

While he waited for Steve to pull up, Jonathan zipped up his jacket, glad that it fit okay over his cast. He was already sick of the thing, and he hadn’t even had it a full week yet. He’d attempted to do some of his backlog of schoolwork earlier in the day, but holding a pen, much less writing, had been a challenge. He couldn’t imagine trying to do … other things.

As soon as Steve pulled up, Jonathan got in the car with him, smiling and leaning over for a kiss. The press of Steve’s lips against his felt just as amazing as they had each and every time before. Feeling the need for it, Jonathan deepened the kiss for a second before licking across Steve’s lower lip. 

Steve made a muffled noise of surprise and threw the car into park as he kissed Jonathan back. After one more kiss – well, okay, three or four – Jonathan broke away, breathing heavily.

Panting too, Steve smiled and asked, “Why did we agree to go to a movie theater again?”

“Because we promised Nancy we’d take her on a real date.”

“Right,” Steve said with a chuckle, readjusting his pants, and then his hair. “ _After_ the real date stuff.”

“Your parents out for the night?” Jonathan asked.

Steve scoffed and rolled his eyes as he reached for the shift stick and put the car into reverse. "They're actually home for once. I guess they wanted a few days to recuperate after traveling."

"Shit," Jonathan said, laughing a little when Steve gave him a look. "I mean, _your_ parents are home. Nancy's parents are always home. I don't think my mom is _ever_ leaving the house again…"

"We'll figure it out," Steve assured him, heading toward the movie theater. "It'll be fine."

Jonathan wasn't sure he quite shared his boyfriend's optimism, but Steve's words made him feel just a bit better, all the same. 

When they got to the movie theater, Nancy was already waiting for them, tickets in hand. Jonathan told her, "You didn't have to buy the tickets."

"I don't mind," Nancy said with a smile, taking Jonathan's good hand and tugging him toward the ticket taker. "Besides, you guys can buy the popcorn."

Except when they got to the concession stand, Steve paid before Jonathan could wrestle his wallet out of his pocket with his left hand. Jonathan frowned at him. " _Steve_?"

"What?" Steve asked with a far-too-innocent look on his face, pushing a handful of popcorn into his mouth as he turned away and led them toward the theater.

Jonathan ended up sitting in the middle, with Steve on his right and Nancy on his left. It was a great place to be, honestly. He was a little worried about people seeing the three of them together, and what they might do about it, but while he did recognize some people, nobody bothered them. Michael Cross, one of the popular jocks just gave a casual wave to Steve, but ultimately focused on his own date for the night, Pam DeWitt, a junior in Jonathan's photography class.

This was… well, this was nice. And it didn't feel weird, either. Maybe it was because Jonathan hadn't really ever had friends to hang out with, but it felt kind of like he imagined that would be. Comfortable. Fun. Once the lights went down and the movie started, Nancy leaned in closer to Jonathan, holding his left hand. Just a few minutes later, Steve put his arm around Jonathan's shoulder.

Yeah, Jonathan could get used to this.

~*~

Nancy squealed a little as she was pressed against the back passenger door of Steve's car by Jonathan kissing her, his good hand cradling the back of her neck, like he couldn't keep her close enough to him. She kissed him back as best she could, grabbing at his shirt, needing to feel skin. Her hands ran into Steve's, and Nancy grabbed one of Steve's hands. She laced her fingers with Steve's, holding onto it tightly while she got her other hand up under Jonathan's shirt. 

_Fuck,_ she wanted Jonathan naked so she could press her skin against his. She wanted both of them so badly, but it was a tight squeeze, all three of them sitting in the back seat of Steve’s car. Nancy broke her lips away from Jonathan’s, catching her breath for a moment before she spoke. "There's not enough room in here!"

Jonathan chuckled, his lips against her throat, nibbling a path toward her ear and making her squirm. From his other side, Steve asked, “What do you want to do about it, Nance?”

“I don’t _know_ ,” Nancy said with a groan, getting a few more kisses from Jonathan before he switched over to kissing Steve. Even though it was cold out, Nancy felt overheated and struggled out of her sweater. To better reach the others, Nancy kicked off her shoes and turned in her seat, kneeling on it and pushing aside the collar of Jonathan’s jacket so she could kiss his neck. 

His skin tasted good, so she tried sucking on it a little, before laving the spot gently with her tongue. Jonathan groaned a little louder that time, snaking his arm around Nancy’s waist and pulling her closer. She ended up straddling his thigh, meeting his lips for wet, open mouthed kisses. 

Steve was just as close on Jonathan’s other side, his hand cupping the back of Nancy’s neck, his thumb brushing the sensitive spot below her ear, making her shiver. She heard him mutter, “Wanna fuck you so bad,” and she couldn’t tell which of them Steve was talking to. Either way, it made her shiver and want to agree. 

Jonathan made a soft whimpering sound against Nancy’s lips, then turned toward Steve, asking in a breathy voice, “Shit, _can_ we?”

Steve looked at Jonathan for a second, the light from the dash barely illuminating his face. He met Nancy’s eyes for a second, too, before telling Jonathan, “I didn’t think… I mean, I didn’t bring anything.”

Nancy made a mental note to start carrying condoms in her purse. Which meant buying some...in the next town over, because Jonathan's mom worked at the general store, and Margie Davis, who ran the pharmacy, was friends with Nancy’s _mom_. Like, sure, Nancy was an adult now, but she didn’t need her mom knowing _everything_ she did.

"You're an idiot, Steve Harrington," Nancy said with a good-natured smile, making Steve laugh.

“Next time,” Jonathan said, sliding his hand up the back of Nancy’s shirt, holding her close. "I'll remember."

As Steve leaned over, angling to kiss Nancy, a thought popped into her head and then right out her mouth. “We need our own place.”

"That sounds awesome," Steve said just before kissing her. God, he was _so_ good at kissing. Hopefully, the kissing meant she hadn't scared him off by implying she wanted to move in together already. Mostly, she just wanted someplace private to be alone for a while. 

Steve's head jerked and he grumbled, "Ow!"

"Sorry!" Jonathan said, tightening his arm around Nancy. "This damn cast. I can't…"

"Need a hand?" Steve asked, letting go of Nancy and putting both hands between her and Jonathan, undoing Jonathan's fly.

"Oh, _shit_ ," Jonathan muttered, pulling Nancy into another kiss. She noticed when he took a sharp breath, and she realized it was because Steve was touching him. A shiver of desire ran through Nancy and she followed Steve's forearm down until her hand was wrapped around Jonathan, too. 

He felt _so_ hard and _so_ smooth, and Nancy wanted him _so_ much. The best she could do at the moment was move her hand with Steve's, giving him the friction he seemed to need.

"Mmmph," Jonathan groaned against Nancy's lips, kissing her once more before breaking away. He tipped his head back, breathing hard and heavy, muttering the odd curse word here and there.

"What do you want to do, Nance?" Steve asked in a soft voice, spitting in his hand and then spreading it down Jonathan's length. "When we get somewhere with an actual bed? Tell me what you want to do."

"Tell you?" Nancy asked, letting Steve take over with Jonathan. "Like, about how I much want you inside me?"

"Fuck, yeah," Steve said, reaching over and catching Nancy in a hard kiss. 

"Oh!" Jonathan said, his hand tightening on Nancy's hip. "Nance, me too."

"Yes, you too," Nancy assured him with a smile, kissing his lips and then moving over to his neck so Steve could kiss him. 

After a couple muffled cries, Jonathan whined, "Steve! Shit, please! I--"

"Yeah," Steve said, shifting around and giving a frustrated noise before opening the door. The night air was shockingly cold. Before Nancy could ask what the hell Steve was doing, he was half out the door, his head down in Jonathan's lap.

Oh, the sight of Steve's mouth on Jonathan's cock made Nancy ache with desire. She sucked on Jonathan's neck for a second before whispering in his ear, "Is Steve good with his mouth?"

"Yeah," Jonathan said, licking his lips, breathing hard and fast. "So good."

"You think I'd like it?" Nancy asked him, putting her hand on his chest. Jonathan wrapped his good hand around hers, squeezing. "If Steve put his mouth on me?"

Jonathan groaned loudly, squeezing Nancy's hand a little harder as Steve worked him through his orgasm.

"Jesus," Steve said as he sat up, wiping the corners of his mouth with one hand. "It's fuckin' freezing out."

Nancy laughed. "Close the door, then!"

Steve got back up on his seat, closing the door. "Yeah, sex in a car is even more difficult with three people."

Nancy giggled, and Jonathan laughed too, Steve joining them with a wide grin on his face. Then he reached across Jonathan, putting his hands on Nancy's face and guiding her into a kiss that reminded her of how desperately she wanted to be touched. She tried to get closer to Steve, but Jonathan was in the way and she ended up accidentally digging her knee into his thigh.

"Oh, sorry!"

"I'm good," Jonathan said with another laugh. "Here, maybe if I go…" He guided Nancy over him while he scooted toward the window, putting her in the middle. 

"Okay," Nancy said, sitting between the two of them. "Now what?"

"Now _this_ ," Steve said, lunging at her and kissing her. He shifted her shoulders a bit and pressed her back so her back was in Jonathan's lap and her head was kind of up against the door.

Nancy laughed, but she went with it, kissing Steve back and getting one of her knees between the back of the seat and Steve's hip. He groaned a little against her lips and pressed his hips in close. Nancy reflexively pushed back against him, and the pressure on her clit was so nice she couldn't help but moan a little. Why had she worn stupid pants on this date, instead of a skirt?

Breaking away from Steve's kiss, Nancy gasped. Steve moved his mouth over, latching onto her neck and sucking on the skin there. Nancy met Jonathan's eyes and reached for him, pulling him into a kiss too. It was kind of sideways, and she was sure Jonathan was craning his neck at an awkward angle, but she liked being able to keep him with them, and involved, even while Steve thrust against her. 

A moment later, Steve sat up, bracing himself with one hand on the ceiling of the car. Panting, he said, "Dry humping isn't quite working for me, babe."

"Yeah, me neither," Nancy agreed, using the arm she had around Jonathan to hug him close. Jonathan bumped his nose against the underside of her jaw and kissed her neck. With a little bit of a groan, Nancy asked Steve, "What do you want to do?"

"I _want_ to fuck you," Steve said, the straightforward need in his voice making Nancy shiver, "but I'm an _idiot_ , so that's gonna have to wait." He sighed, pushing a hand back through his hair. 

Nancy couldn't help but giggle. She reached out for his face and sat up far enough that she could kiss him. Then she took her arm from around Jonathan's shoulders and reached for Steve's fly. It took a little maneuvering to get it open, but the groan she got out of Steve when she cupped his cock through the thin material of his boxers was worth it. 

"Shit, Nancy," he breathed, kissing her a few times in quick succession, pressing into the last one a little harder. As she stroked him, her fingers found the opening in the fly of his boxers, and she followed the feeling of that silky skin against her fingertips. "Ah! Fuck!"

As Nancy stroked Steve's cock, Jonathan leaned toward him, kissing Steve's neck and the side of his face. She wondered if Jonathan liked seeing her kiss Steve as much as Nancy liked seeing him do it. And _that_ made her think of other things she wanted Jonathan to watch her do. Things like…

"Sit back," she told Steve, letting go of his cock and pushing at his shoulders until he was sitting down. She folded herself down into the leg space of the back seat before leaning toward him, curling her hand around his cock again. 

"Nance, what are you--" Steve started to ask, but Nancy ducked in closer, licking the tip of his cock. "Oh! Oh, god!" He mostly tasted like clean skin, but there was a salty, bitter taste in the fluid leaking from the tip. Mostly Nancy just loved the way Steve looked when she licked him again.

Softly, Jonathan murmured in her ear, "Get him nice and wet, all over. Use your hand to spread the wetness down."

Goosebumps rose on the back of Nancy's neck, and she reached for Jonathan with her left hand, lightly holding onto the fingers on his casted hand. She followed Jonathan's instruction, hearing the way Steve's breath hitched and he whispered, "Oh!" as she stroked her spit-wet hand down to the base of his cock and then back up.

"See? He likes that," Jonathan said, rubbing her fingers softly with his thumb, stroking his other hand down Nancy's back. "If you want, you can close your mouth around him and let your lips follow your hand. … Yeah, like that. He likes it if you suck a little bit on the way back up."

"Jesus Christ, Jonathan!" Steve whined, reaching and putting his hand on Jonathan's shoulder. "That's so fucking hot. Keep talking."

"Yeah?" Jonathan said, and his voice sounded darker, thicker somehow. Nancy kept going, speeding up a little, more like what she'd seen Jonathan do before. "You like hearing me teach our girlfriend how to blow you?"

"Oh, fuck. I'm gonna… I'm gonna come!"

Nancy hadn't really thought that far ahead, so she was a little startled when her mouth filled with salty, bitter come. She made a sound of distress, not really wanting to swallow it, but not sure what else she could do. Then Jonathan opened his door and helped haul her up and onto his lap so she could spit onto the ground outside. 

She coughed a little, spit again, and then closed the door again, saying, "That certainly has a _taste_."

Jonathan laughed, hugging her and saying with a grin, "Yeah. It does."

From the other side of the back seat, Steve murmured something, but he was already curling up sideways against the back of the seat, eyes closed. 

"Wow, it really is _every_ time, isn't it?" Nancy asked, readjusting herself until she was more comfortably situated, sitting next to Jonathan, but leaning most of her body against him.

Jonathan chuckled and said, "Yeah, kind of," before kissing her jaw. Then he froze and said, "Shit."

"What?" Nancy asked, putting her hand over where he had his hand on her hip. "What's wrong?"

"Steve's asleep, and I'm right-handed," Jonathan said, and Nancy didn't quite get what he was saying.

"Do you need to get home? I can drive, if you want."

Jonathan gave a soft laugh and she could feel the way he smiled against her neck. "No, not yet. I'm just…" He sighed. "I'm not sure I can _take care of you_ right with my left hand."

"Ohhhh," Nancy said, shivering at the suggestion of it. Then she had an idea. "Do you…?" Except, she couldn't quite say it out loud.

His voice was soft, and gentle as he asked, "What is it? I'm open to suggestions." Jonathan's smile made Nancy smile in turn.

Wincing at the sound of it, Nancy made herself say, "Your mouth?" 

"Oh."

Jonathan's response was so clipped short, Nancy felt like she had to backtrack. "No, if you don't want to, I don't--"

"I _want_ to," Jonathan assured her. "I just… I don't know _how_. Steve does." He reached over, nudging at Steve's leg with his cast. Steve mumbled, but he didn't wake up.

"Well, I don't know how either," Nancy told him. Then she realized how that might have sounded. "I mean, I don't know what it's supposed to feel like. We could," Nancy shrugged, "figure it out?"

"Yeah?" Jonathan asked, and when Nancy nodded, he grinned again and pulled her into a deep kiss. 

Then something occurred to Nancy. "Well, if we can figure out _how_ we're supposed to get ourselves arranged…"

With a little snort, Jonathan said, "That is a good point." He hummed thoughtfully before saying, "I think I might have to open the door. Kneel on the ground."

"No! You don't have to do that!" Nancy insisted. "We'll try some other time."

"Nance, look at me," he said, pausing until Nancy rolled her eyes and looked him in the face. "It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make." He smirked a little bit, so Nancy knew she was supposed to laugh.

"Okay," Nancy said with a nod. Jonathan reached for the door, but Nancy stopped him, saying, "Kiss me for a minute first? So I'm warm enough?"

"Gladly," Jonathan said, kissing her deeply, then licking against her lips. She imagined how his tongue might feel against her pussy and it made her squirm, aching for him. With his left hand, Jonathan cupped Nancy's breast, caressing softly over her shirt and bra. 

Nancy groaned. She grabbed Jonathan's face and kissed him a few more times before saying, "Okay, how should we…?"

"Lay back against Steve," Jonathan said, turning as Nancy scooted away from him, getting up onto his knees. Then he reached for the button of Nancy's jeans. "The pants are going to have to come off, I think," he said, undoing the button with his left hand. 

Nancy thought maybe he could do more with his left hand than he thought. In any case, Nancy helped him get her pants down, pulling one leg out, but leaving the other around her lower thigh, maybe keeping her leg a little warmer. 

Jonathan kissed her again, a few slow, deep kisses that made Nancy relax. 

And then he was opening the door, and sliding down, pressing a gentle kiss just under Nancy's belly button. Nancy shuddered, both because of the kiss and because of the cold outside air. She needed to come so badly, she wanted to scream. As Jonathan kissed closer and closer to her pussy, Nancy found herself opening her legs wider for him, revealing herself to him. She felt a little stupid and self-conscious, until Jonathan gently licked up her slit, _almost_ but not quite brushing against her clit. The warmth of his tongue felt scorching in contrast to the icy winter air.

"Oh!" Nancy gasped, having to force herself not to flinch away at the intense feeling. 

Jonathan licked her again, only this time, he _did_ manage to brush her clit. The feeling shot through her body like an electric spark.

“Yes!” Nancy sighed. “Do that again!”

Jonathan not only did it again, but he did it several times in succession. Nancy cried out each time, unable to help herself. 

Behind Nancy, Steve stirred, putting a hand on Nancy's shoulder and whispering, "Oh, _shit_ , you guys!"

Jonathan looked up, his eyes on Steve, and then on Nancy. She could have sworn she saw him smiling. Then he worried at her clit with his tongue and his lips, making Nancy cry out again.

Steve shifted around so Nancy's head was pillowed on his thigh, brushing his fingers through her hair and leaning down to kiss her. The sensation of being kissed while Jonathan was eating her out was overwhelming, to say the least. She grabbed onto Steve, using him as an anchor so she wouldn't lose herself too far in it.

But then, Steve pulled back and asked in a low voice, "You want him to put a finger inside you? Maybe two?"

Nancy thought about how that would feel, about having something to clench against and ease that ache. Nodding, she said, "Yeah. Yes! P-please!"

Jonathan murmured something and then his blunt finger slid into her, almost frictionless because of how wet she was. He pulled his finger back out and when he pressed in again, it felt like there were two fingers. The slide wasn't as easy, but the friction was _perfect_.

"Oh!" Nancy said, recognizing that she was getting close. "Jonathan! Keep…"

"You like that?" Steve asked, his hand warm when he put it on her chest. Then he slid his hand under her shirt and into her bra. He gently pinched and rolled her nipple between his thumb and the side of his index finger.

"Ah!" Nancy cried out, surprised by the strength of her reaction. She didn't even have time to take a breath before a tidal wave of pleasure crashed over her. She grabbed Steve's arm with her hand and pushed at Jonathan's shoulder with her foot. He backed off, but lifted her legs and slid into the seat under them, closing the door behind him. Nancy sighed happily, her body still clenching in waves as she sat up, pulling Jonathan close so she could give him a kiss of thanks.

Jonathan chuckled, wiping his face on his jacket sleeve. That reminder of what he'd just done made Nancy shiver. Or maybe that was just the fact that she was half-naked in a freezing car. As Nancy got her underwear and pants back on, Jonathan said, "Shit. I've gotta get home. My mom's gonna worry."

Handing Nancy her sweater, Steve said, "I'll get you home safe, Jonny."

Jonathan gave a displeased huff, but Steve grinned, kissing Nancy's cheek before leaning over her and pulling Jonathan into a more involved kiss. Nancy wondered if Steve could taste her on Jonathan like she had when she kissed him a minute earlier. She found herself wishing that Steve could.

A few moments later, Steve was back up in the driver's seat and all three of them were put back together and decent. Steve started the car, turning up the heat and asking, "Homework at my place tomorrow? I'm pretty sure my parents will be at the country club or something."

"Definitely," Nancy replied, leaning her head against Jonathan's shoulder and folding his hand in hers. "Jonathan?"

"I'll be there," he said, squeezing her hand and kissing her hair.

~*~

Being back at school was a little strange for Steve. People kept asking him why he quit the basketball team mid-season. He kept shrugging and telling people he needed to focus on getting his grades up. That didn't explain why Steve now sat at lunch with Jonathan, Nancy, and Nancy's friends, Barb and Robin. Some of Robin's friends from band sat with them too. Nancy's and Jonathan's brothers had started sitting at the next table over, with the rest of their group. Sometimes it seemed to Steve like they were leaving room for someone else. For El.

In any case, it was a different sort of crowd than the friends Steve had always had before. Those differences took some getting used to, but Steve was happy to do it. For once in his life, he felt like he actually had friends who _liked_ him and who _cared_ about him and his happiness. 

It was better this way. Much better.

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize for writing this monster instead of continuing my Mr. Sandman series. There are more installments of that fic planned, but I won't start posting them until I'm sure each ends with a nice stopping point for the series as a whole, just in case.
> 
> I'd love to hear what you thought of the fic, down below in the comments, or you can find me [ on tumblr](https://pterawaters.tumblr.com/), or hanging out in [the stoncy discord](https://discord.gg/ttpB8eF).
> 
> If you really like the fic and would like to give it a boost, please consider reblogging [this tumblr post](https://pterawaters.tumblr.com/post/624559909743263744/rated-e-71k-words-complete-concerned-that). Thanks!
> 
> Thanks so much for reading!


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